How Nigerian Importers Secure Payment For Online Shopping And Purchase Orders
Online shopping is common today because of its flexibility and access to products review online. Majority of Nigerian importers transact their business on their supplier’s website for payment. The websites may have some features of ecommerce for online transaction. Nigerians are skeptical when it comes to inputting their card detail for payment settlement. I remember in 2003, and then ebay.com, craigslist.org and the likes were the popular ecommerce sites where people sell and buy products and use payment solution like PayPal account to make payment. There have been a lot of fraudulent transactions using fake accounts to deceive buyers and sellers.
Many Nigerian importers need to understand the basics measures that must be checked before placing online orders. Many goods have been lost in transit through ecommerce website whereby sellers on online mall failed to put more measure to secure delivery. Business partners with international corporations may lose trust in deals if payee payment information is not secure on ecommerce website of the sellers.
I will show you the basic measures importers that are buying in online stores should put in place, for secured payment online.
The measures for secured online payment are
- product reviews
- website secure socket layer SSL
- Site review
- Connection security
- Payment process completion
- Test purchase
Product reviews
Product reviews will tell you the reactions of the previous buyers of the products. It helps to make decision on whether to proceed on placing orders. Products reviews have helped many importers to have insight on the quality of the products to order. It will show you the analytics views of the customers of the particular merchants on the base on the information given to the customers. Some suppliers will tell you the specifications that will make you to make quick order whereas you will see different specification when the orders are delivered
Website secure sockets layer (SSL)
One of the measures to put in place while shopping online on websites is assurance of website security. Data transmitted on secured website are encrypted for protect against data theft by hackers. SSL has different validation level. Some encryptions are 128 bits and 256 bit validation level. The website has to use well recognized company credentials for browsers to trust the encryption of the site.
To view a site credentials, you need to view the following
- Click on the closed padlock at the left corner of the browser’ URL address bar
- Look in the green address bar to know the extended validation license
More secure seal of trust are be looked after on website at bottom or the footer of the website. This will give more security technology measure for more trustworthiness of the website. Any fraudulent person can buy the SSL certificate for a website but security seal will be of extra security measure for customers’ safety.
Site review
Site review is the reviews of visitors and customers to the website. Product review is not the same as site review. Site review talks about the whole website you are buying from. It talks about the speed of the website, the responsiveness to other devices, how light the contents are and some other parameters. You can get site review on Google review, forums, and guest websites like quora.com even on social media.
Connection security
Have you notice a caution sign on closed padlock on URL bar when browsing using 2G or 3G network? It means your data is not safe. Nigerian importers must be warned not to go ahead with transactions when this happen. The purpose of SSL on website is to secure data transmission from the browser to web servers. Connection of the network must be strong and secured before proceeding payment. It doesn’t matter whether the website is secured like heaven so far there is no secure connection between server and browsers don’t proceed.
Payment process completion
Payment process completion on ecommerce websites is essential because it can cause double deduction on the customers’ payment card. The customers must wait for the website to finish payment process in order to receive payment invoice or receipts.
Test purchase
If you doubt the reputability of a company website but you love their products. You can give a trial on test purchase of their products. Test purchase will limit he risk of losing all the money once. It is the best way to deal with upcoming ecommerce websites in order to be at safe side of transaction.
Engage the service of reputable freight forwarding company
Freight forwarding companies in Nigeria understand the requirements for importing specific products to Nigeria. They will tell you some products that are customs prohibited goods. The contents of the documents to be issued will be analyzed to avoid seizure or demurrage
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