Although online shopping is very convenient, there is sometime a confusion as to who acts first. Does the buyer make payment before receiving the goods, or does the seller ship the goods before receiving payment? E-Escrow believes it has the solution.
Online shopping is rapidly growing within South Africa. Although highly convenient, when buying or selling goods, there is a disparity in the order in who acts first; does the seller wait to receive funds from the buyer before shipping the goods or does the buyer ask for their goods before making their payment? E-Escrow has stepped in to address this issue and ensure a straightforward transaction for all parties involved through a standalone software application.
“E-Escrow offers buyer protection and gives both the buyer and seller peace of mind when engaging in a sale, providing a positive experience for online transactions,” says Llewellyn Morkel, managing director of Electronic Escrow Solutions, who developed the software. “With E-Escrow, it very easy for website owners to offer escrow based payments that includes a courier service. It’s really as simple as plug and play.”
E-Escrow works on two guiding principles: to be secure and simple for users. When a buyer and seller engage in a transaction on OLX, the E-Escrow third party platform will hold the buyer’s funds securely and verify the authenticity of the deposit. The seller is then offered a guarantee of payment provided that the goods or services meet the terms of the sale.
Further to buyer and seller credibility matters, online security matters. The recent MasterCard Online Shopping Behaviour Survey showed that 90% of South African online shoppers cite the availability of secure payment facilities as critical when shopping online.
“South African-owned classified site OLX has entrusted E-Escrow to manage their user transactions through their payment portal,” says Morkel. “This partnership aims to encourage the buying and selling of goods on the site as E-Escrow’s functionality makes it easy to shop on OLX across provincial borders. E-Escrow has bridged this gap and provided the complete solution for OLX.
“Quite simply, E-Escrow allows the seller to get paid and the buyer, to get what they paid for.”