How To Shop Online on thebestofzambia.com — A Step By Step Guide
How To Shop Online on thebestofzambia.com — A Step By Step Guide
Shopping online in Zambia is a relatively new thing. Change is scary right! Especially when it comes to parting with your hard earned money…
People, it’s time to overcome any reservations you may have! Online shopping is the way forward. It’s more efficient (and right now safer) for you, and it’s great for businesses. We need to make buying and selling easier for everyone because retail is a key ingredient for a healthy economy — something we all want for Zambia.
To reassure you and build the level of trust we need to make online shopping in Zambia more mainstream, we have carefully selected our partners and rigorously tested our systems.
This article will walk you through how to shop on thebestofzambia.com. We’ve used screenshots to visually demonstrate each step. You can see what will happen when you click the next button, and the next button. Each click will take you towards a shopping experience that is a whole lot easier!
Article summary
Let’s Go Shopping!
- How to find what you’re interested in
- Something catch your eye? Find out more about it
Login and Create an Account
- Create an account
- Login
Make a Payment
- Checkout
- Pay by card
- Pay by MTN Money
So, Let’s Go Shopping!
Click the ‘Online Shop’ or ‘View Online Shop’ buttons on the homepage.
Our homepage
Today the online shop looks like this. Obvious but not obvious — when you load it up on on a different day, it will show different products.
The online shop
Something catch your eye? Find out more about it
We’re all unique and we all use the internet differently. So, there are a few different ways you can find things.
1. Scroll to browse
Scroll with your mouse or preferred scrolling finger on your phone. Which is your scrolling finger — your index finger or your thumb, or both?!
Scrolling will give you that ‘just browsing’ shopping experience. What you see every time you come back will be different because we’re adding products constantly. Well, if you come back after 5 minutes, things might be the same, but if you come back in 24 hours, things will most probably be different!
If you scroll all the way to the bottom and are liking your browsing experience, you can simply scoot across to the next page, and carry on scrolling.
The scrolling, ‘just browsing’ experience
2. Use categories to navigate
Click a category and relevant products will pop up. You can zone in to your area of interest by clicking the next set of subcategories. Categories let you navigate around the online shop just by clicking around.
Using categories
Using subcategories
3. Search, sort and filter
These features are the best friend of seasoned online shoppers!
SearchBecause I’ve put ‘tea’ in the search box (top left), Moringa’s tea related products have come up. When empty the search box says Search within results.
You can search by product type, like tea, shoes or hand sanitizer — whatever it is that you are looking for.
You could also search for a brand. Putting ‘Moringa’ in the search box would bring up all the Moringa products in our online shop.
Search, sort and filter options
SortYou can also sort your results in a certain order (top right). The results will default to the most relevant results but you can also sort the price from low to high.
FilterYou also have the option to filter the results by Supplier or Brand (top middle). Using filters you’ll quickly get products relating to the specific supplier or brand you are looking for.
Altogether nowYou don’t have to use search, sort and filter independently. You can use them in different combinations to help you zone in on what you need.
If you just put in ‘tea’ in the search box, the results would populate with all the tea products available. If you know you only want Moringa tea, you could search for ‘Moringa’ or ‘Moringa tea’. You could then sort the results from low to high price.
Find Out More About A Product
When a product catches your eye, click its image to see a detailed product page. I chose Moringa Miracle Capsules.
Choosing a product
Variations
Different products will have different variations available. Depending on the product options and what you want, you can Select Your Options — things like colour or size, for example.
Product detail page
In our example of Moringa Miracle Capsules you can choose between 180 or 90 capsules.
Note that the ‘Retail Price’, ‘Click & Collect Price’, ‘You Save’ and ‘Details’ may change depending on the options you choose.
EDIT: Note that Click and Collect is now call Store Pickup
Use variations by selecting your options
If no variations apply to the product it will just show one option.
The ‘You Save’ price relates to the 5–10% discount we have secured with our partners when you shop online with us.
Store Pickup or Delivery Options
In March, we launched with Store Pickup as the only option. Here’s an article on why Store Pickup is an incredibly useful option for buyers like you.
If delivery is your thing, we launched this in the first week of June! So now you have the option to choose from Store Pickup or Delivery.
If your opt for Store Pickup (previously called Click & Collect) sometimes there will be multiple collection points to choose from. So remember to select the collection point that is most convenient to you. You can also see opening times of your collection point and the collection period — you’ll need to collect your items within this window of time.
Click & Collect
Your Shopping Basket
When you’re happy with your product selection simply ‘Add to Basket’.
The basket will show a green tick when you have successfully added your item to the shopping basket.
Add to Basket compared to In Basket buttons
To see what is in your basket, click ‘View Basket’. Note that you can view your basket at any time — with or without logging in. In my example below, I am not yet logged in.
When you are in your shopping basket, you can check and adjust the items and quantities, removing an item altogether if you need to.
Your Shopping Basket
Your shopping basket is also an order summary. It tells you the total price of your order together with your savings. It also reminds you of all the key information like your collection point and collection period.
When you’ve finished shopping, click ‘Proceed to Checkout’. Don’t be nervous about this step — you still have the chance to review you order again, before it’s final!
Log In or Create an Account
When you click ‘Proceed to Checkout’, you will be prompted to ‘Create New Account’ or ‘Login’.
Since we’ve just launched our online shop, most people will need to Create New Account.
If you already have an account then simply Log In.
Log in or create new account
Note that you don’t have to wait until you buy a product before setting up your account. You can use the Your Account section to do this at any time.
You can create your account at any time
Create an Account
When you click Create New Account you’ll be prompted to sign up. You’ll need to enter your email address and a password then click the purple Sign Up.
Make a note of your login details for next time. If you’re the only person that uses your computer or phone, you can choose to save your login details.
Sign up
You’ll now be prompted to verify your email address.
Verify email message
Verify your email address by logging into your email and following the instructions in the email. If that doesn’t work for any reason, click Try Again to get a new email sent to your email address.
This step adds a layer of security, helping to ensure that no one can randomly use your email address for online shopping! We’re making sure the person using the email address to sign up can also access that email account.
Verification email
When you click into the email, it looks like this.
Click to verify
When you verify your email you will be directed back to thebestofzambia.com home page. You can now click Your Account and log in.
The first time you login, you will need to add your name and phone number in case we need to update you about your order. You’ll also need to tick the box to agree our Terms and Conditions. Save the details when you’re done via the blue button.
Personal details and terms & conditions
You can now navigate back to your basket. Remember that these additional steps of creating an account only have to be done once. Next time, you’ll simply log in.
Login
If you have an account already, then enter your registered email and password and click ‘Log in’.
Login
When you log in you’ll be taken to your orders page where you can Start Shopping or View your Basket.
Continue shopping
Make A Payment
You can currently pay with a Zambian Visa card or MTN Money. Zambian Mastercard, Airtel Money and international Visa and Mastercards are coming soon.
Checkout
When you’ve finished shopping (steps outlined above), simply Proceed to Checkout. You will still have a chance to review your order before it’s final.
Your shopping basket
Next, Complete Order.
Complete your order
You can switch between paying by card or Mobile money by selecting the ‘Pay by card’ or ‘Pay with Mobile Money’ button at the bottom of the pop up.
Choose to pay by card or pay with mobile money
Paying by card
If paying by Visa Card enter your card details — card number, expiry date and CVV, the 3 digit number on the back of your card.
You have the option to save your card details for next time. This is safe to do as long as you are the only user of your computer or phone.
Click the orange Pay button when you’ve entered all the details.
Enter your card details
This opens up a new window for you to click Proceed.
Proceed to payment
You will then be redirected to your card issuer’s verification page to complete the payment.
This example uses an FNB Visa card which requires the use of a One Time Pin sent to my phone. This is an extra layer of security.
Note that your card issuer’s verification page may look different. Security features may vary from bank to bank which might be different to the One Time Pin system used by FNB.
Issuers payment verification page
After clicking submit you will see an order confirmation. After your payment is verified, usually in a few seconds, you will receive a confirmation email and you can view your order details.
Order confirmation
When you click View your order details, you will see when you order was placed, your order reference number, details of your collection point and collection period, the items you have ordered, as well as collection instructions.
You can access this important information about your order at any time from your Account, and you’ll also be emailed a copy.
Order details
After you’ve placed your order, you’ll receive two emails.
Email 1Flutterwave, the payment platform we are using, will send you a receipt on behalf of Infobwana.
Infobwana is the company name for thebestofzambia.com, registered in Zambia.
Note that the actual payment will most likely show on your bank statements as BROADPAY ZAMBIA LIM — this is the company in Zambia that Fluttewave are working with. It may also show as RAVEM or RAVEPAYMENTM.
Receipt from Flutterwave on behalf of Infobwana (thebestofzambia.com)
Email 2You will receive another email from thebestofzambia.com confirming all the details about your order — details of what you have ordered and instructions for collecting your order.
If paying by MTN Money
If you want to pay with Mobile Money, then switch to the Pay with Mobile Money option. At the moment you can pay with MTN Money. Obviously you will need to have an MTN Money account.
Enter your phone number. Note that we’ve tested all the variations of your phone number and they all work. +260, 260, 096, 076, 96, 76… Then click the orange Pay button.
Adding your phone number for MTN Money
You will get a text message with instructions to reply to the text with your 5 digit personal MTN Money pin.
Push notification from MTN Money
After replying to the text message you’ll then receive the order confirmation where you can view your order. You will also receive the two emails as outlined above — one from Flutterwave and one from thebestofzambia.com.
Order confirmation
So there you have it — a screenshot for every step of the online shopping experience on thebestofzambia.com. Now that you have had this walk through, we hope that buying your first product on thebestofzambia.com no longer feels like jumping off a cliff!
So, why not go shopping? View the online shop by clicking here.