This review is the second in the series of more to come, as I explore the world of e-commerce startups in Nigeria. If you missed the first, you can read it here. It was about Sabunta but today it’s all about taafoo.
taafoo.com, an online retailing store which for some reasons I believe is one of the trending online store in Nigeria today. They also have a walk-in store. If information reaching me is correct, taafoo.com has quite a number of customers and is said to be making quite a fortune in the services they render.
Whether this fortune is earned from its location at Plot CL2 Ikosi road, Opp. New Daystar extension, Oregun, Lagos or via its online service is what am not privy to know, jury is still out on that one. However taafoo.com is said to be doing good and have earned themselves some potential investors.
My first visit to taafoo.com left me with an initial dilemma: Is taafoo.com an on-line retailing outfit for sales or more bent on deals than sales? For every item you see with full price there are two or more items with slashed price tags; sometimes though, if you look closely some items with slashed prices actually retain the same price tag after the slash. I have no idea if this is a marketing strategy of taafoo.com as coming as affordable.
I can say taafoo.com is a one stop shop where you would get everything you need with respect to clothing, jewellery, accessories, perfumes etc.. The owners of taafoo probably do not want its customers to look else where, just like you would see in super stores in the developed countries.
Here’s what I’ve got to say about the e-commerce startup – taafoo.com:
User Interface
The pages are just too busy. Too many information on the same page. For example what you have listed horizontally are also populated vertically, even though in different like colour. I think it’s too much information for a web page which would would need users to scroll down 6 times on a 17 inch monitor. Though I understand the aim is to enable customers filter what is required of them, but a drop-down option like the ‘display by’ radio button can help resolve this issue.
I feel more should be done to make the site presentable and unnecessary information as deemed fit by taafoo.com should be removed. Another example is, why the white and red “Now Hiring. Apply Today” at the bottom of the page. A link to a career page would do, and it’s actually at the bottom of the page.
Shopping Experience
The shopping experience is spot-on. Its easy to pick item and add to basket even though you might have to scroll a lot to achieve that. Patience is a virtue… Selah. The shopping bag is detailed with items picture (something missing in sabunta.com), quantity, cost and description. Also incase you do not know shipping at taafoo.com is FREE. As its written on the site and I quote ‘No minimum order, no end date, just free.’ On the How It Works page, you’d see that taafoo.com delivers between 1-2 business days in Lagos and 2-4 business days outside Lagos via courier.
One major plus at taafoo’s is information you need for your shopping expirence are avialable on the site, except you are find it difficult to source for information – which is kind of a cancelling effect of that plus.
Warning: You can’t use personalized email addresses like yourname@yourdomain.com. e.g. segun@tosin.com even though its a real email address, as only global emails like gmail, yahoo, and hotmail are accepted. You cannot also use a nearest bus-stop with specail characters such as “-“. e.g. “Abule-Egba”, it has to be “AbuleEgba”. Maybe taafoo should look into this.
Payment Experience
Payment expirence is secured and clearly gives all options of cards and banks supported. Perhaps a good place to start is the How To Pay page on the website.
Customer Service Experience
This time, I decided to use the chat option to contact to taafoo.com’s customer service. I don’t know if the service works, but it did not work for me for the numerous times I tried it. Well I know a number of site that get that feature on the site template, and don’t bother to rip it off even when there are no plans to have it functional. Get someone on that or just disable it.
In summary, taafoo.com meets major on-line/e-commerce shopping experience but would do with an upgrade of the look and feel for a better shopping expirence. Like I would say, am not paid to do this.
Cheers!
