How to Safely and Quickly Start Shopping Online in Uganda
Guest post by David Okwii from DIGNITED
The other day, after a long-day’s hard work, I was hungry. I needed something, not just to eat, but to reward myself. After rounds of options that rolled in my head, I ended up with a cheese burger.
I needed it and needed it fast. These days, when you need information about something, your immediate instinct is to Google it. As expected, you’ll most likely find it instantly. But, can you likewise satisfy your hungry stomach with only the click of mouse?
The answer is yes — if you know how to.
Shopping online although not yet so popular is soon becoming the norm. In case you’re wondering where, am mean in Uganda. Already, there are more than 3 functional stores that are fully operational in the country that promise to deliver anything that you order for within hours, if not minutes.
Kaymu is an online store that lets you buy and sell stuff online ranging from clothes, shoes, electronics, furniture among others. Jumia is yet another even bigger store that helps you shop online with the convenience of only your internet-enabled laptop. Now for those of you who would like to grab a bite, helloFood will deliver your order from the closest restaurant nearest to you with in an hour or less. HelloFood is an affiliate brand of FoodPanda and it is the leading global online food delivery marketplace, active in more than 40 countries on five continents.I did use helloFood to get my cheese burger from Endiro located in Kisementi some time back. Payment is simple; you hand them cash when they deliver your order to your door-step.
For global stores such Amazon, eBay, iTunes and App stores like Google Play store, you’ll need a credit card. Up until now, it has been a hard to shop from any of the international stores since local banks haven’t been providing these visa credit cards. However, these two banks — Crane bank and UBA — have made the process a bit painless. UBA offers its prepaid credit card they are calling the UBA Africard while crane bank offers the same with crane access card. All you need to take note of (and guard jealously) is the credit card number which is a 15-digit code, the security code, a 3-digit code and the expiry date all of which are physically printed on your card. Also, you need a physical address that can easily be reached at by a courier service like DHL. For this, I would go with my work/office address. If you don’t have any of these, don’t hesitate to get help from a friend or relative that has.
These and several others are some of the ways you can make use of your mouse and keyboard to transact online. It works. However, be careful. There are several scams online that could rob you of your hard-earned cash.
