Taking your car to go shopping or shopping cart to go from one market to another to make provisions is the traditional method of shopping. But for a few years, to offer a good no longer requires the physical presence in a market or in a shop. New means, however little known by the general public, are trying to impose themselves little by little without yet making the weight. These are the online sales sites known as e-commerce. Between reluctance, fear of being cheated and unexplained pleasure shopping moments, the Togolese does not have this reflex to go on the net to afford a product he needs.
Saving time, convenience, lower risk are all the facilities offered by virtual shops. Going to an e-commerce site is just like traveling from home to a shop to buy a product. As soon as we know the address of the site, it will be enough of a PC or a smartphone with an Internet connection to offer the good that one wants without moving.
Vague knowledge of online shop
The Togolese lambda does not have the reflex to go on a website when he wants to procure a product. Consumers and online sellers are aware of this.
"The only time I bought online was a book for my thesis. But a friend who knows me has helped me. The rest, I think I have it in the daily. I can run the buy, Akoua, a Master of Law student.
And Romeo to add: "I do not know of an online site that sells in Togo. Besides, what am I going to buy on a site? Sometimes I see shoe advertisements, clothes, and so on. On Facebook and in WhatsApp groups, but I never bought anything. "
Online shops that try to impose themselves
Many Togolese sites offer various products to consumers in both Togo and the diaspora.
"The Togolese, especially the youth has rather the reflex to go on Facebook and we as e-traders we use social networks namely Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp as communication tools to reach this target. When the person surfing Facebook sees in his thread a product, Often it passes. It is when he is in need that he will remember that he once saw this product on Facebook and if he remembers the page on which he saw it, then he returns or s 'He registered the number, he contacts us,' explains Ayawo Gbedjeha, Web integrator engineer, administrator of Miaplenou.com.
A reality confirmed by Ismael Tanko, young processor of pure tomato fresh that bottles to resell on Timagro.com. He adds: "The Togolese do not have this reflex, it is rather the diaspora that has it. The Togolese diaspora have become accustomed to buying for their family here (Togo, Editor's note). But this is not very common. The online site actually is not to sell our products here, it's more to do a service to the Diaspora.
These sites also are an opening for the promotion of other products. So we met Martin, another young Togolese who goes from shop to shop. Objective, offer the services of the online site commercefacile.com. His job is to take pictures of items for sale, publish them on the site followed by a small message about the price and the name of the company and the contact of it.
"Our concern is to advertise to merchants, individuals, businessmen, and so on. There are actually two pages on commercefacile.com. A page that presents the product, the name of the company and the contact. The second page presents each product and its price. It's just a product promotion. The creation of the virtual shop is a free service, He explains.
Methods of e-merchants to put customers trust
By lack of confidence, even knowing that it will pay for delivery, the Togolese is reluctant when it comes to buying online. To do this, several e-traders opt for payment on delivery. "That's why we offer the pay-as-you-go model. For the moment, we have not yet integrated the payment by Visa or MasterCard. Only clients who have already experienced it or those of the diaspora who know the system pay us before delivery, "adds Ayawo Gbedjeha.
Once on the site, the customer who finds the product he needs needs to register it and the service of the shop can contact him for the procedures of the delivery.
And he adds: "A customer who registers a product on Miaplenou for example, we remind him to confirm his order and the delivery address. It tells us the address and if we have a precise idea of the zone, it is easy since we know at what level the customer is. If asked whether the client uses WhatsApp, this application can send its location to a person. When the customer is at the indicated location and sends his location, simply use Google Map which shows the route to the customer.
It will be necessary to specify that the defective connection that the Togolese has is an obstacle to surf on different sites to offer better a good. Opening a page remains for the Togolese a fighter course.
Online shopping sites are of vital importance in developed countries and even in African countries where the notion of time saving is assimilated. Even if these online shops are not yet the weight in Togo, they will eventually prevail especially with the digital age.
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