When I discovered the thrills of getting to buy items online in far away countries of Europe and America while I sit in Nigeria, I got almost addicted. Well, not quite, since you neccessarily require the money to shop, but not to window-shop. I got a kick from knowing that I could just buy a product whenever I wanted with just a few clicks.
How was this made possible? Well, first the site(s) needed to be available, then the means/mode of payment, and then the delivery.
For the first, a number of sites presented themselves: Amazon, PC World, Asos, TM Lewin and the likes of other trusted online stores. All the stores above have well-designed, user-friendly websites with lots of product varieties, good customer service and impressive return policies.
All of these stores also accept credit or debit Visa and Master cards, including those issued by Nigerian commercial banks. My joy knew no bounds when the Visa debit card issued by my bank, denominated in naira, could pay for my purchases in both US dollars (on amazon.com) and pounds sterling (on amazon.co.uk) at very affordable exchange rates from the bank. I had a challenge initially when the issuer couldn't authorize my payments because the CVV2 security code was not provided by me at the point of payments. When I contacted the bank and was told this, I had to explain to them that the site site doesn't require the code at the point of payment, apparently treating my debit card like a credit card; amazon itself uses a very secure server with enough security in place t prevent unauthorize use of a subscriber's shopping account. The bank promptly review this parameter and my payments have sailed through since then.
Then came the delivery aspect. Initially, there was a challenge with this: to the best of my knowledge as at the time of this blog, none of these online stores in Europe and America would directly deliver purchased items to a Nigerian address, except books. So what I'd do essentially was to have my items delivered to my brother's UK residential address, he'd then forward to me through any friend or relative coming to Nigeria.
Of course there were some demerits to this -
1) timing: it's important that the delivery is done when someone is at home to receive and sign for it, otherwise slight complications or delay may occur;
2) courier frequency: waiting for someone who is coming to Nigeria with the items can be awkward;
3) hesitation of friend or relative who will be anxious about the weight and sometimes nature of the item(s).
(To be continued...)
