Why you should ditch payment on delivery as an online seller.
Pay on Delivery is quite popular in Africa because customers have not been able to fully put their trust in online stores. There is a safe feeling attached to receiving and inspecting the product, before deciding to make the payment or not. While this is a perfect arrangement for the buyer, we should look at how vendors fare when they accept to collect payment on delivery.
A typical scenario would be one of these;
Scenario 1
Amaka orders an Ankara bag from Ronky Couture on Instagram and wants to pay on delivery, a price was agreed and the proprietor of Ronky proceeds with delivery to the address given by Amaka. When the logistics company called Amaka about her order, she arranged to meet them at her estate gate, she examines the bag, pays the delivery man and everybody lives happily ever after.
Scenario 2
Amaka orders an Ankara bag from Ronky Couture on Instagram and wants to pay on delivery, a price was agreed and the proprietor of Ronky proceeds with delivery to the address given by Amaka. When the logistics company called Amaka about her order, she realizes that she had used part of the money meant for the bag to get some ice-cream from cold stone. So she switched off her phone to avoid taking calls from the agitated delivery man. The product is afterward returned to Ronky Couture. At this point, Ronky Couture has already paid to get the bag across to Amaka and she’s forced to pay again for the cost of getting the bag returned. Bad deal, Now you would understand that if Ronky Couture has 10 customers who disappointed just like Amaka, she’s going to be making a huge loss, one she very likely didn’t plan for. One thing is for sure, if Ronky Couture continues to incur such losses over a long period, they will likely go out of business.
So what does Ronky do? Ronky Couture decides to write boldly in their Instagram bio “Payment before Delivery, No Refund or Exchange (You pay for it, you have to keep it) “ Now Bolanle who is serious about getting an Ankara bag and shoe lands on Ronky Couture’s page, she sees a bag and a pair of shoes she wants, she checks her account balance and Yeah, she has enough to pay for 20 bags if she wants but she has no reason to trust Ronky who vehemently refuses to accept payment on delivery, throw in the bold No Refund, No Exchange Policy and Bolanle no longer feels safe, she decides to get the bag and shoes whenever she goes to town. And the fact is there are many customers like Bolanle, who would happily pay you if you deliver a good product like you said you would.
Somehow we have to solve this problem, how do we get Ronky to identify unserious buyers like Amaka (if she can disappoint 2face, it shouldn’t be a surprise that she did the same to Ronky) and how do we get Bolanle to buy from Ronky even if she has to pay before Delivery. The solution is Escrow.
Now Ronky Couture signs up on middletrust.com and sets up their trust link. Amaka makes an order, but she has to pay to verify her order via Middletrust, she realizes that she doesn’t have enough to make the purchase yet, so she leaves the order for when she will have enough. Bolanle lands on Ronky Couture’s Instagram page she verifies her order by paying via Middletrust whom she trusts to protect her interests in case Ronky Couture falters. Ronky does everything right and delivers promptly to Bolanle, and the satisfied Bolanle approves the payment held by Middletrust, and payment is in turn released to Ronky Couture’s account. (now that’s what we call happily ever after)
Ronky Couture no longer has to suffer because of people like Amaka, and also Bolanle can trust Ronky because she gets a 100% quality assurance by paying with Middletrust.
Pay before Delivery is unfair to buyers, pay on delivery is unfair to the vendor but payment with Middletrust is just right.
Sign up on Middletrust today and enjoy the safest form of payment.
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