Shopping online in Kenya is possible. I will start with a confession: I am an online entrepreneur and I will love it make money online if Kenyans shop / buy online. (Learn how to make money online and how to receive online payments.)
Why shop online
Most international websites accept payments online and mainly receive payments via debt / credit card. Kenya websites are a little flexible and accept payments via MPESA.
A dept /Credit card makes it easy to buy a book at Sitepoint (My favorite online resource website), Amazon or making a donation at Wikipedia. Sitepoint for instance allows one to purchase a book in PDF format and download immediately.
Shopping online offers unlimited opportunities. For instance, you can book and pay a flight, reserve a hotel booking, purchase a web application all in the comfort of your home or office.
Furthermore, most merchants offers discounts to buyers who pay via the website.
How to shop online in Kenya
- Cooperative Bank and Equity bank provide a visa card (a card with a visa logo) that you can use on the ATM, at the supermarket or online to buy and pay for goods and services.( You need to ask your banker to enable this for you.)
- Kenya Commercial Bank also has a card you can use to purchase good or services online. (Contact your branch fro more information)
- Bank of Africa (BoA) have a toucan card that you can top up and use to shop online. There is an initial registration fee and a small fee for subsequent top-ups.
- Airtel money Kenya, Mastercard and Standard Chartered Bank came up with “Pay online”. This service enables Airtel Money users in Kenya to generate a virtual Mastercard for use in shopping online.
- Safaricom through partnership with Visa and I & M bank are offering “MPESA safari card” that is actually a debt card that you can use to buy online.
- PayPal: You can use your balance in your PayPal account to purchase goods online.Sign up for a free PayPal account.
Online security while shopping online
Yeah…this is not to scare you but you need to be “street wise” online too. Below are some suggestions to make sure your money is safe.
- Have a separate card for online transactions and load it when you want to shop online. If a crook gets hold of it they will not wipe our your savings account for example.
- Before entering your card details in the check out page, make sure that page is secure. Normally, when browsing the web, the URLs (web page addresses) begin with the letters “http”. However, over a secure connection the address displayed should begin with “https” – note the “s” at the end. A secure website address starts with https:// .Read more about a secure website.
- As much as possible, do not use your card on shared computers. Some computers have software that stores every key stroke you make on the keyboard.
- Link your card to PayPal. PayPal acts as an escrow account so that you do not need to enter your card details to merchant website when shopping online instead you will be selecting, “Pay with PayPal” and enter PayPal username and password to pay.
- If you lose your card or suspect that someone has the card information, inform your bank immediately.
What are you waiting for…buy web hosting online in Kenya.
