To date, we have been accustomed to buying and selling goods with cash in any market. But with the advent of Internet, many classifieds markets like OLX have emerged attracting diverse ways of buying or selling goods and services of which, Techmoran highlights the pros and cons of each mode of payment often experience by buyers and sellers.
Since OLX was launched in 2006 it has spread to over 106 countries attracting a diverse range of buyers and sellers thanks to the high subscription of internet through the years.
Over the years although internet in Africa has been limited by a lower penetration rate compared to the rest of the world, internet subscription has risen from two per cent in 2005 to 16 per cent last year. That in turn has increased number of buyers and sellers that chose OLX as an ideal online classifieds for advertising. However, buyers have often had challenges and benefits whenever they purchase goods on one of the world’s largest Classifieds, through cash, cheque or online fund transfer payments.
“I have registered a product with OLX for selling, I got a message from them that they will sell the product within a week and to register I need 3,500, 6500 and 10,000 (Rupees) and they give a bank account number,” complained Sam, an OLX user based in India, who thought the services were absolutely free of charge.
Nevertheless, OLX informed him that they would gladly fulfill his requirements within a day. All one has to do is receive a registration attachment via email that would be printed out, filled and scaned back to the email id. OLX has some registration charges which are mentioned in registration form. Payment mode is either by cheque, cash or online fund transfer, they say.
Cash payment
Cash payment attracts benefits as well as challenges. Research has found that consumers spend less when they pay through cash in comparison to swiping credit or debit cards because, they are likely to be more careful about how much they buy. Moreover, cash payment saves the hustle of having the risk of information personal information being stole in a data breach. However, when purchasing products through OLX, the downside of using cash as a mode of payment is that many consumers based in far away countries prefer to ask additional information such as one’s ZIP code and email address so that they can market to you later on. Thus, with cash, while no one asks for your personal details, it eliminates email marketing and some offers one is likely to receive.
Online fund transfer
Online banking is gradually becoming a common mode of payment. One can easily access a record of transactions done online. Researchers say that online banking makes one plan their finances easily through the records of transactions kept. One can easily access the information from anywhere across the globe via internet. Moreover, it would eliminate the need for stamps while protecting buyers from the check being misplaced in the mail. One would need to fill out the information once and then simply select the selected profile each time one pays a bill online. With online fund transfer, you can access the history of transactions of which can help one find out the amount of a transaction after have misplacing a receipt. Moreover, it allows you to find about unauthorized transactions, helping you to resolve the issues fast. However, the downside of online fund transfer is that safety or privacy can be breached. Thus, OLX users are advised to clear cookies from a public computer after each banking session. Passwords too are expected to be long enough to prevent accounts from being hacked by unauthorized signers.
Procedure for making OLX transactions
After receiving a registration form and amount, OLX would ensure to sell your products within a day after getting your registration form and amount of funds. It would then send users a gift at a given address that users would receive it within 24 hours.
With OLX, users can pay the amount of registration selected such as that of the one, two or three year plan of which can be changed after completing a minimum of six months. Users will get their price at your doorstep within 24 hours of which, they provide the address in the olx registration form.
Then, in 24 hours OLX staff would reach at one’s address and verify one’s product and give the form to fill for ownership agreement.
But if a user would want to cancel a registration for any reason, he or she would have to ask for the cancellation form to be filled and sent back. A user would receive refunds in 24 hours and have to return the free gift back to the company.
If a user agrees to sell goods to an OLX employee, then employees would provide you the amount on same time for your goods at a negotiable demanding price.
However, if the potential buyer or seller is not in your area, you can make the registration with any OLX branch in your country and you can make the good deal for your product. And if you receive an email saying you won a prize and should pay for its shipping, do not reply but contact our customer service team
In all OLX wishes all users a successful transaction via its website www.olx.com.
