Online Shopping: Nigerians most scared of What I Ordered Vs What I Got

Nigeria’s internet economy has been touted as undeniably one of the biggest in Africa. The nation’s population is also one of the youngest worldwide.

The prosperity of digital business looks promising but these young buyers mostly inclined to purchase things online have one fear ― What I Ordered Vs What I Got.

The above term simply means a situation where an online buyer clicked and/or ordered an item online only to get something different from the description and pictures delivered to her/his doorstep.

In a survey conducted by Jeugmark, more than 40 per cent of respondents are scared of buying anything online because of the fear of “item not as described”.

The survey asked respondents “Which of these are you scared of, shopping online in Nigeria?” They were given four options thus:

Item not as described
Delivery cost
Card fraud
A & B

According to Jeugmark, 794 internet users responded to the survey. Out of the 794, 40.3 per cent chose A (Item not as described); 9.6 per cent chose B (Delivery Cost); 23.9 per cent picked C (Card Fraud); while 26.2 per cent chose D (Item not as described & Delivery Cost).

Deducing from the survey, the dishonesty of some sellers has haemorrhaged the trust and confidence of online shoppers in Nigeria thus the popularity of What I Ordered Vs What I Got.

Aside from that, the prevalence of online scamming in Nigeria has also hindered many people from trying to buy online.

In 2015, 10,743 fraud cases were reported for Deposit Money Banks. This increased in 2016 to 19,531.

Likewise, these fraud victims lost about N2.25 billion and about N2.19 billion in 2015 and 2016 respectively.

This seems not to be reducing as victims of fraud lost about N5 billion in 2020 according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) report.

With increasing campaigns such as the Shine Your Eye and Be Fraud Aware advertisements by banks in Nigeria, citizens are now getting more sensitized. The card fraud rate is expected to reduce.

However, eCommerce websites like Jeugmark ensure the safety of your cards. They use only trusted and security-conscious payment gateways.

Three Ways To Protect Yourself from Card Fraud in Nigeria

Whenever you visit a website, as an online shopper and the site does not have a lock icon beside it to indicate it is secured, don’t purchase anything from such a platform.