The growth of e-commerce in global shopping and Nigeria has made ease of buying and selling a click away. One of the most popular activities on the Web is shopping. It has much allure in it — you can shop at your leisure, anytime, and in your pajamas. Literally anyone can have their pages built to display their specific goods and services.
History of ecommerce dates back to the invention of the very old notion of “sell and buy”, electricity, cables, computers, modems, and the Internet. Ecommerce became possible in 1991 when the Internet was opened to commercial use. Since that date thousands of businesses have taken up residence at web sites.
At first, the term ecommerce meant the process of execution of commercial transactions electronically with the help of the leading technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) which gave an opportunity for users to exchange business information and do electronic transactions. The ability to use these technologies appeared in the late 1970s and allowed business companies and organizations to send commercial documentation electronically.
Today most business the world over have online presence which means that goods and services can now be concluded on the internet. This brings us to one of the most challenging situation it poses to one’s personal finance, we do not even need to be in a shopping moll to spend money, even in our bedroom there is always the temptation of shopping all the way.
As a Nigerians shopping in a foreign e-commerce site that accepts payment in USD, this can involve the challenge of the uncertainty of the Naira exchange rate as a result of the flexible exchange regime that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Most shoppers use a domiciliary account to make payment for such transactions in order to avoid the outrageous exchange rate.
But is that the best option to cut cost? Now let me explain this; the Naira as at today exchanges for 350.91 per dollar, and i was charged 350 per dollar when i paid for a service using my GTBank master card. Using my domiciliary account cost me just the dollar and i do not need to worry about the exchange rate. So i continued shopping using my domiciliary account, but then recently i decided to sell my dollars through the Bureau-de-change, i sold a dollar as high as 385 per dollar.
Now let’s do the mathematics, selling my dollar for 385 naira per $1, i have saved 385 minus 350 which equals 35 naira. Ever since i discovered this method, i no-longer buy using a domiciliary account.