Limits To E-commerce Abound
Payment procedures, authenticity, availability and quality of the product… still problematic.
Cameroon
since 2010 boasts of a regulatory framework on electronic commerce
(trade). This is through Law N° 2010/021 of 21 December 2010 on
electronic commerce in the country. The legal instrument gives
stakeholders the leeway to use the internet to place orders for products
over a network with the computer as intermediary. As good as the
business may be given that it is time-effective, a litany of hitches
exist which if cleared, could be a veritable booster to the innovation
from the traditional floor trading.
Payment Procedures
Payments
for products shopped online are done through electronic fund transfer.
Many online banking services allow users to send money straight from
their bank accounts to the retailer, as long as they have an e-mail
address and they also use online banking. Some require users to register
for an intermediary service, like PayPal, in order to pay for goods.
Once you’ve registered, you can choose to send funds directly from your
bank account, from a separate PayPal account or by credit card. Either
ways require knowledge and prior agreement with the retailer which may
be inconvenient to some buyers.
According
to Emmanuel Keng Ngong, an online buyer “It is easy, flexible, time to
compare from many shops, variety and less energy. But hmmmm! when not
careful, scams, products may appear physically different from what you
see online, sometimes your credit card is hacked, delays do occur. May
be expensive since you have to pay shipping cost when it comes to buying
from abroad.” But when it comes to selling and buying within the
country, urbanization problems and the low rate of bankarisation stand
as speed brakes.
“Well
there can be many steps to go through. Site can be slow, some shops
require you to access through social network like facebook where some of
your personal infos can be exposed,” Emmanuel said. Another online
business customer, Elias Yang, a writer, told Cameroon Tribune that “I
pay some services to my publishers online. Internet connection at times
disturbs. But within the country, the business to me is almost
nonexistent, no credit cards” he said.
Product Authenticity, Availability
Without
exaggerating, a choice of a product made online may not be as sure as
one made physically. Stories of people ordering goods online only to
discover that the face value is not up to what they saw or were told
abound. There is also the problem of availability of stock where some
products advertised do not have sufficient stock to meet growing demand.>>>
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