Safaricom’s Masoko lacks 3 basic handy eCommerce features

Masoko is Safaricom’s answer to all your online shopping problems. Or that’s what it is supposed to be. Launched last month, Safaricom has pushed the new eCommerce platform across all advertising platforms possible that you have to be living under a rock to not have heard of the site.

I’ve had a good experience with the site so far (One item is what I mean by so far). But overall I love that Safaricom has put a lot of effort into making the idea of Masoko feel like something that has existed for quite a while.

But there are a couple of issues I noticed way back. Then in my quest to grow my YouTube channel, made a terrible video discussing them. The video is above this post. But here I am writing a quick post to follow up on the video.

Masoko may have been rushed. Or it may have been done perfectly, but I feel like the following three features are a must have and lacking them feels like someone somewhere has never visited an eCommerce site in their life

Search Function doesn’t work correctly:

I am searching for a Samsung Fridge Safaricom. I am not searching for anything with the name Samsung or anything with the name fridge. So don’t give me a Samsung phone as the top result. Don’t give me an LG Fridge in that result.

Here’s a hilarious search result for diapers:

Actual @MasokoKe search result ? via @Shiko_Msa pic.twitter.com/XPN2S0uHp2

— Techish (@TechishKenya) December 14, 2017

Related Items

Inasmuch as Masoko may be trying to be unique, there’s no way you have a site without Related Items. If I am out to buy a phone show me related items so that I don’t keep searching. Show me what goes together so that I don’t waste time on the site. Help me out.

Filter according to Price Range

Well it is a good thing there are filters. But apart from being standard filters across all products (which is a bad thing, as you can’t have the same filter parameters work for all goods), the site lacks the basic price range filter.

I want to be able to check out phones between Ksh. 10,000 and Ksh. 20,000. I want to be able to check out laptops between a certain price range. Why isn’t that happening?

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Well of course there are many other things that are still not there for me on Masoko. But they are not essentials. The above three are. And Safaricom should do something about them ASAP.

Masoko over-promised and now can’t back up their promises. One major issue is their incredibly slow delivery times.

I week later and I am still waiting for them to deliver pic.twitter.com/T8xXD4LFRa

— Kaluka (@kaluWanjala) December 11, 2017

How has your Masoko experience been like. What do you think is good or bad with the site?