There seems to be remarkable demand for Ugandans who wish to shop from offshore countries such as USA, UK, China, Dubia, United Arab Emirates. However, available online stores like Amazon, eBay, Alibaba don’t ship directlly to Uganda and don’t even list products in local currency or even support local payment methods.
Now we have listed a number of e-commerce and shipping sites in Uganda that let you shop from these stores. Intership, goodsexpress, Intraline online, US2UG, UG Unlocked are just some of the many options you can explore. Now the latest entrant is Masikini.com.
Related post: Online Shopping in Uganda: Here’s how to buy stuff online and easily ship to Uganda
With a sleek and intuitive design akin to but not nearly as massive as Amazon or e-Bay, Masikini.com has grabbed our attention. The first thing we notice is a wide catalog well-categorized products users can browse on the site. The site has something for everyone; from Electronics, Jewelry and watches, Women’s fashion, Men’s fashion, Sports and outdoor. With a searchbox right on top of the site, you can quickly look for whatever you want.
Masikini lists all products in local Ugandan currency instead of dollars which is a plus. You don’t have to pull your hair with exchange rates anymore. However, what we particularly found repelling were the shipping costs. First Masikini will show an attractive product price which might instantly tempt you to pull out your wallet. But once you click on the product details, the site adds on shipping costs which are most cases more than half the original price of the product. For instance the Raspberry PI 3 was priced at Ugx 270,000 but with shipping, the amount came to Ugx 403,000. This really is a bummer. I instantly reached out to them about their high shipping costs and they attributed it to taxes;
“The shipping Cost at times ends up shooting that high because of taxes involved. But we shall surely look into that and see how we can better charge.”
Just like its competitors, Masikini accepts local payment options such as MTN mobile money or Airtel money. Users can also pay using Visa or Paypal. We are a little surprised cash on delivery is not listed as one of the options.
Have you used Masikini, let us know your experience in the comments below.
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A great one. Haven’t used them yet. Have you also reviewed supaprice.co.ug?