Millions of naira is spent daily online shopping for a myriad of reasons ranging from the huge bargains, wide assortment of products, fast delivery and easy returns. However for the few late adopters, studies have shown that one of the major reasons for not shopping online is fear of shopping insecurity.
Kaymu.com.ng has listed 5 ways online shoppers can conduct safe business transactions online.
Use Familiar Websites
Start your search at a trusted e-commerce site rather than with a search engine. Search results from search engines can be misleading at times most especially when you drift past the first few pages of links. If the site is well known, chances are it’s less likely to be a fraudulent site. Beware of misspellings or sites using a different top-level domain (.net instead of .com, for example)—those are the oldest tricks in the book.
Use safe payment options:
Ensure you shop on a site that has safe payment options for example the Kaymu Safe Pay, an escrow service that enables you make payments into Kaymu’s secure bank account and only remits money to seller once you have received your item and are satisfied with it. Also ensure that the website accepts payment on delivery as this checkmates a lot of fraudulent activities that is associated with online shopping. When shopping from an online marketplace never send cash directly to the seller because you’ll have no recourse if something goes wrong. Don’t forget to review return policies. You want a no-hassle ability to return items.
Conduct exchanges in a secure environment:
When filling in your delivery information, the primary address should be an open and secure address such as your school or work address. Your home address should be a second option for weekend deliveries and in the advent that you would rather receive items at home. Ensure you open packages when delivered to you and inspect it to be sure you are satisfied with it before parting with money. Do not follow delivery personnels to dark corners/ hallways for any reason.
Check the Company’s Privacy Policy
Each e-commerce site has its own privacy policy. Reading the private policy is the only way to know what a company does with users information and how it is transmitted. Most of us do not take our time to go through this information, but it’s very important if you want to ensure that your information are very secure and not also not sold to third parties. So next time when shopping online, go through the company’s privacy policy to ensure your data are in a safe place.
Check that the website has a buyer protection policy
Shop with confidence by ensuring you shop from a site that has a well stated buyer protection policy. Go through the policy and make sure you understand available payment options, the return policy for items purchased as well as a contact to the e-commerce site if necessary.
