Over the years, As the marketing sphere navigates gradually into the digital world, making it a lot easier to have access to product without taking moving an inch. Though I have always been a great fan of sourcing of items online, ***"sourcing"**** in the sense that, I might not really be interested in buying the item at the moment or all I want is to get the price and plan towards it in the future, digitisation of marketing has made this act of mine a lot easier.
Apart from shopping online through websites and apps, there is another rampant medium, a division of online shopping, which is social media shopping. In recent times we have a lot of individuals who advertise their product on social media to get across to customers/consumers. All you have to do is view the product, contact the vendor and it will be delivered to your door step.
it sounds pretty cool but compared to the normal websites and apps for shopping, the credibility and authenticity of this online traders is quite challenging. They mostly survive on referral, someone who have made deals with them and confirm they are legit but this doesn't guarantee that they wouldn't turn out to be scams in the future.
Speaking of worst experience with traders, I had a weird experience with one of these online vendors about 3 years ago, one of my siblings was in need of a school bag and he kept pestering me about it and it is quite difficult to say no. Knowing fully well that his birthday was around the corner I just decided to buy the bag and kill two birds with one stone. I decided to check online outlet for bags that will be convenient for him but I wasn't seeing anyone I liked.
One Faithful day, I was strolling through my departmental WhatsApp group, when a lady's advert was forwarded into the group, she seem to be into all this wholesale stuff including bags, so I decided to check her catalogue on WhatsApp, I saw a lot of amazing bags listed, one in particular pinned my interest. So I texted her and requested for the bag, the amount she mentioned was a little bit expensive but she made emphasis on delivery cost so I decided to ride along. But the funny thing about this online traders is, they always request for money before delivery of the item. I got paranoid and chatted up my colleague that posted her link, she admitted the online vendor was legit, as someone I knew I took her word for it. I went ahead and made the payment, she gave me details of when the bag will be delivered.
The bag was delivered the second day around evening to my door step, so I hurriedly tore the package wrap to check out the product, that is when the whole drama began. Though the bag looks exactly like what I ordered but not in terms of size and thickness. I immediately contacted her and informed her about my dissatisfaction. She claimed that was how the bag looks like and that was the only size she had, the size of the bag was written on the picture I saw but what was delivered was smaller. I grew a little upset because she collected an amount for a bigger bag and delivered a smaller one.
I wanted to request for a refund but knowing how this online vendors are, what if I sent her the bag and she ended up holding unto the bag and the money, that will be double loss. I just let the matter slide and vowed not to ever patronise any of the online vendors again, funny enough about a year after I became an online vendor myself 😅.
Speaking of good experience with traders, I had a very pleasant experience with a trader recently at Sabo market in ikorodu. After last year's Christmas celebration, I went to market to purchase some clothes I will be needing for work, being fully aware that most traders might decide to go on break for awhile after the new year. I was touring around the market when I saw some some clothes in one of the shops in the complex, I went into the shop and I met the owner of the shop. We exchanged greetings and I went ahead to pick the clothes I needed and the ones I also liked, I was very picky throughout the process but this man was so calm and he kept pulling apart his store just to get the wears I needed.
After I finally picked all I wanted, I asked him to calculate my bill, normally cloth vendors in Lagos are very vicious when it comes to prices. I already had a price in mind for every cloth I picked, which I believe that there is 90% chance that he won't agree to it, to my surprise when this man calculated everything the amount was below what I had in mind and I suddenly became confused. I scattered the clothes just to make sure all items I picked was there but to my surprise it was. I didn't know when I suddenly asked the man, Hope you knew what you calculated? The man looked at me confusingly. He then went ahead and said, he is not the type of trader that enjoys making overboard profits on his market, he mentioned the price he bought each cloth believe me the profit margin was very low.
I still find it hard to believe that such honest traders still exist, for the first time in my life I tipped a trader, like I gave him extra money after I paid for the clothes I bought, to prove how joyful I was for the items I bought. I collected his business card and I'm definitely visiting him again when I return back to Lagos after my service year. It became clear to me that there are still traders out there with Goodwill and conscience, No matter how many bad traders we have encountered, we shouldn't judge them all by the experience.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled "Just another trader" in hive learners community.
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