South African entrepreneur and MD of E-Escrow, Llewellyn Morkel developed the first of its kind standalone South African software, E-Escrow. "E-Escrow offers buyer protection and gives both the buyer and seller peace of mind when engaging in a sale, providing a positive experience for online transactions. With E-Escrow, it very easy for website owners to offer escrow-based payments that include a courier service. It's really as simple as plug and play," said Morkel.
E-Escrow works on two guiding principles: to be secure and to be simple for users. When a buyer and seller engage in a transaction on OLX, the E-Escrow third-party platform will hold the buyer's funds securely and verify the authenticity of the deposit. The seller is then offered a guarantee of payment provided that the goods or services meet the terms of the sale.
Further to buyer and seller credibility matters, online security matters. According to the study conducted by global market research company Ipsos, it was revealed that amongst the key drivers that would encourage South African online shoppers to shop online more often, safer ways to pay was a top concern (as mentioned by 75% of online shoppers surveyed).
Echoing these trepidations, the recent MasterCard Online Shopping Behaviour Survey showed that 90% of South African online shoppers cite the availability of secure payment facilities as critical when shopping online.
"South African-owned classified site OLX has entrusted E-Escrow to manage its user transactions through its payment portal. This partnership aims to encourage the buying and selling of goods on the site as E-Escrow's functionality makes it easy to shop on OLX across provincial borders. E-Escrow has bridged this gap and provided the complete solution for OLX.
"Quite simply, E-Escrow allows the seller to get paid and the buyer to get what he paid for," explained Morkel.
E-Escrow is currently active on the following shopping websites: www.OLX.co.za, www.buydirect.co.za, www.zulteck.co.za, www.onestopfurniture.co.za, www.rentasim.co.za, and www.goget.co.za.
For further information on E-Escrow and how you can gain control over your purchases and sales online, go to www.e-escrow.co.za.
