Uganda's Online Shopping Staggers

(The Monitor (Uganda) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) COMPUTER illiteracy coupled with inadequate Internet connectivity is a major roadblock to web-based business, where consumers purchase products or services over the Internet.

Websites that are involved in online purchasing include Amazon, eBay, and Buy.com among others. However low Internet connectivity has increased the cost of doing this type of business in Uganda.

According to the 2005 annual African e-business survey, conducted by Pan African Consulting Group (PACG), a leading Management, Systems and technology consulting firm, entitled: "The African Establishment of E-shopping Habits Among Consumers" confirms that online shopping in Africa and Uganda in particular, is still a growing channel, with lack of access to internet and lack of computer knowledge making online advertising a nightmare.

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"Ugandan consumers like to shop in stores, touch the merchandise and take it with them right at that moment," according to PACG findings.

"The Internet has not yet developed and has barriers to immediate consumer gratification."

PACG estimates that more than 80 per cent of Ugandan consumers have no computer knowledge and therefore, prefer street shopping to online purchasing. According to the report the figure cuts across the entire business community with a large number of merchants still hooked to the old habits. However, lack of mutual trust among trading parties is the other reason online business has not developed.

"I can't trust Internet business; I prefer face-to-face business and there is no bureaucracy at all," said Mr Musa Kasiita, the Managing Director of Basiita enterprise Ltd, a local company dealing in imported fabrics along Ben Kiwanuka Street. Mr Gad Murungi, the Materials and Logistics officer at Uchumi supermarket, says: "We don't offer online purchasing here and we haven't got customers asking for it."

PACG 's analysis, drawn from more than 10,000 professional respondents from 30 African countries including Uganda, says that although e-advertising is increasingly becoming a popular practice, online shopping in developing countries has not taken shape because of lack of knowledge and access to new information technology.

However, one of the main concerns associated with online purchasing is piracy. According to Mr Amos Ahimbisibwe, a Researcher at Uganda Consumer Protection Service Ltd (UCPS), a private company offering products and consumer information, many stories revolve around fears of credit card numbers being stolen online and often clients lose money to pirates involved in online scam.

Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com)

Copyright 2006 All Africa Global Media


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