Things to Consider When Shopping Online in Ghana

by Lawrence Quarshie | May 15, 2024

Gone are the days when one has to go the market or a store to purchase an item. Things have really changed with the advent of the internet. In Ghana, ecommerce and online shopping is booming already. However, there has been a sharp rise in online shoppers due to the recent corona virus pandemic. A lot of shoppers are ordering online now. As such activities are already soaring, one must be cautious when engaging in any online transaction. In this post we talked about some the things to look out for when shopping online.

The first and foremost thing one must do when shopping online is to check genuity of the website. This includes the type of connection, the security of the site, the url or website address, the overall design of the website as well as the content on the website. Let's take our time and look into this carefully. An authentic website has and HTTPS connection rather than HTTP connection. The 'S' after the HTTP means secured. This means your connection to the website is secured an hackers may not be able to steal your data, like credit/debit card details, passwords, usernames, log in details, etc. The connection to the website must be secured. As discussed above, there should be a little padlock with https:// before the url of the website you are visiting. The url of the website must not look fishy in nature. For instance the the url of Google should not look like this "https://www.goo-gle.com" but "https://www.google.com". The overall look of the website must look appealing and professional..

Ecommerce websites have a lot of information on the product reviews pages, comments sections, terms and conditions pages usually hidden from plain sight. Usually these details are hidden from the sight of the shopper who pays little attention to subtle details.

Sometimes reviews may suggest poor service from an online shop which has the cheapest price for instance. Reviews are normally rated in stars or sometimes a number over a number. For instance 4/5 or 8/10. Usually product that you purchase online must have a high user/store rating. Though high ratings may suggest a good offer, only scammers can use this as a ploy. One must be extra careful.

Also shoppers are eye openers for issues as well as recommendations from both unsatisfied shoppers alike. One can go further by checking the social media pages of the web store for reviews and comments. This goes a further step by assuring you that a product is worth it's price.

Another point is for you to check price of similar product or service on multiple platforms before you make your final purchasing decision. This helps gives you a best offer and also confirm product details. In cases where there are price comparison websites, one can use the service to speed up and make this process easy.Price comparison compares a number of products from multiple stores give you the offers at one place plus the best offer. In this case you have numerous options reducing your exposure to loss or fraud. One typical example of such websites is informacean.com. Click <a href="http://www.informacean.com">here</a> to start the price comparison and purchase process.

Yes!. When all options are exhausted, consider buying offline. What does it mean to buy offline. It simply means you have to buy from a physical store. Most of these online shops started off as brick and mortar business with physical locations. However, with the advent and growth of ecommerce, these stores went online in order to reach more buyers.

Buying from these physical stores means that, one can inspect the product before purchase and return the product if faulty or fake. With these the probabllity of been duped.

Again, offline shopping helps you know the availability of stock. You get to know if a product you want is buy is available or not and you know right away. Though one, has to check availability of stock before he makes orders, most online shops in Ghana hardly get frequent product updates unless the largest onces like Jumia, Telefonika, Franko Trading amongst others.