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Jumia. Konga. AliExpress. E-commerce sites sure have come a long way in recent years. Used to be that the only way you could remotely get things from overseas was to look for a friend or a relative going there who you gave the Naira equivalent of the product and hope excess luggage wouldn’t be a thing. Or more recently, there were little offshoot websites who you sent an Amazon link and the site would calculate the cost of bringing the product over. Quite a hassle if you ask me. Of course, there was always the trust issue. People tend to not want to part with their hard-earned money when it comes to an unknown entity.
Mall For Africa or MallForAfrica (or MFA, for short) is such a service, but whereas other sites give off a vibe of some lone ranger in his home office pushing all the buttons and levers, MFA is more of a professional looking outfit. Co-founded by Chris Folayan and Tope Folayan, MFA does not house its own inventory. What they do is give you access to over 8.5 billion items from over 80+ stores in UK and US. Well, the other services also do that, you might say. Those other guys don’t have user-friendly apps for all the major platforms however(PC,Mac,Android and iOS).
MFA Android app
To add to the feel of authenticity, MFA even has its own card, just like an ATM card where you can add funds to your registered MFA account which you set up on their site. The card acts as your account number. There are a couple of ways you can fund the account. You can deposit USD or GBP or Naira at any Skye Bank and GTBank branch in the nation. You however do not need to use the MallForAfrica Webcard to make purchases. You can simply use your bank debit card. Rates would be higher though so I suggest you get their Webcard from any of their licensed resellers.
MallForAfrica also offers other services such as MallForAfrica Deals, where according to them you stand to save up to 75% on limited timed daily deals and promotions; and MallForAfrica Auction,where you win a bid and save up to 80% off retail prices. So, like eBay then.
The Apps
Let’s talk about the apps. I find it very convenient that all the aforementioned myriad of stores have links in the apps that take your straight to the stores webpage, ready for you to shop. All you have to do is go to the store of your choice,add items to the stores cart,tag your shopping cart to the MFA site. That’s it. It’ll ask you to log in with your MFA details and ask you to choose your preferred shipping method, either at a select pick-up location (its free shipping to Lagos, but Lagos only) or Door-to-Door shipping. It’ll also ask you to type in your MallForAfrica card number. After adding the custom duty fees, the MFA convenience fee and the shipping fee, the app shows you instantaneously how much it would cost to buy the product. If your MFA account does not have enough funds, you can do an instant online transfer, which costs a 1% additional fee but that is reasonable, I feel. The apps are quite user-friendly and intuitive to use and not a pain to navigate.
Pros
- The sheer amount of shops that you can shop from. 80+ shops is a big deal.
- The great customer care. They alert you if your product will be delayed and if delayed, the reason why.
- Low learning curve for the apps.
- The amount of promos they offer that reduces shipping cost and more.
Cons
- You can’t bundle your purchases from various shops. That means your Amazon order is a separate transaction than say, your FootLocker purchase.
- To justify the shipping cost and handling fees, your purchase should definitely be higher than $100.
- Considerably pricier than other services.
- The 30x30x30cm and 4 kg per item shipping restriction. If your item is outside this parameter, it becomes a custom order thus making it ever so slightly more expensive.
When all is said and done though, I really enjoy buying stuff using MallForAfrica. My friend uses it all the time and I look forward to getting my next PC with the service (Acer Aspire gaming laptop, so I can play Dragon Age Inquisition on it like a boss!Fingers crossed). Definitely worth checking out.
Download the apps here
You can register for your account at their signup page and buy a Webcard at any of their resellers, which you can find here. Their FAQs can be found here.
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