Introduction
“Vendors sometimes overprice their goods,” the founder of an up-and-coming Nigerian e-commerce platform revealed during a recent conversation.
This does not affect them individually. However, it has the potential to drive away our customers. The vendors don’t lose anything here. They simply hop on to another e-commerce platform if yours happens to fold up.
That is the uncomfortable truth — both for e-commerce founders and vendors themselves.
But why is this happening? The answer is that prices are largely unregulated across Nigeria. The food industry is perhaps one of the worst affected — or left out — whichever way you want to think of it.
Unverified online prices are quietly eroding trust in digital commerce. And it is a problem that deserves serious attention.
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What We Mean by Unverified Online Prices
Unverified online prices are exactly what they sound like — prices that cannot be independently confirmed.
How do you confirm that a bottle of groundnut oil on Glovo is not overly priced?
How do you know when to opt for a physical purchase rather than pay hundreds or thousands more for good online?
How do you know that a basket of pepper online is worth the price tag you see on there? How do you know you’re not paying two times the actual delivery fee with a single online order?
Customers are not the only ones asking these questions. Founders of platforms that rely on third-party vendors are equally concerned. How do they tell that vendors on their platforms are not being unreasonable with their prices?
Concerning, right? This is what unverified online prices translate to — uncertainty, distrust, and constant second-guessing.
Industries Affected by Unverified Online Prices
We began with a real story from a conversation with an e-commerce platform owner. That tells without a doubt that e-commerce companies are in this problem. Those that sell food items and ingredients are not spared either.
Another industry affected by unverified online prices is the real estate industry. Many times, potential buyers can’t tell for sure what the actual price of a property is. You’d wonder if an agent is overpricing despite having a set-out agent fee. Or if the property is even unavailable and you’re falling for a bait-and-switch scam.
The travel industry also sees its fair share of this. Precisely, online ticket booking is bugged with unverified prices. However, the reason here could be less fraudulent than in e-commerce and other affected industries.
Think of it as a cached data issue. The booking company might store ticket prices in a cache for faster user operation. Some users might then see old or unupdated prices until it's time to make a payment.
Regardless of the industry, the effect is the same: a lack of clarity around price.
How Unverified Online Prices Cause Problems
There are many ways in which unverified online prices cause problems. Here are some of them:
User Distrust
Users do not appreciate fluctuating prices, especially when the fluctuation ends with a higher price. A typical user wants to save on cost or, at least, get their money’s worth on every purchase. When they cannot verify an online price, skepticism grows — and skepticism leads to distrust.
Customer Loss
Customer loss is the part that affects businesses most directly. It is often a result of distrust, even though many other factors could play a role. Users will switch to a different business, service provider, or platform when they are dissatisfied with one.
Low Patronage
A customer concerned about unverified online prices might not completely stop using a platform. In some cases, they only reduce their patronage. This low patronage implies reduced revenue for the company affected.
Business Closure
Ultimately, low patronage and customer loss could lead to business closure. There is no business without a customer. That said, it is important to take seriously every case of distrust or dissatisfaction.
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Case Study: How The Price Marketplace Resolves Unverified Online Food Prices
The Price Marketplace is primarily concerned with food prices across Nigeria. We aim to be a platform where you stop by first before making a market stop. Our process is simple: users update food prices after shopping.
Here’s how this resolves the issue:
1. Verifying Prices on Our Platform
As more individual users within a specific geographic area provide price updates, it becomes easier to determine the realistic price range of a given food product.
Our platform proactively calculates the mean price of all products. So, it becomes easy to find the nationwide average of eggs by simply clicking on the “Average Food Prices” feature. This gives users a reliable estimate of what a product typically costs across Nigeria.
To create even more relevance, we will be updating the average prices feature to allow users to see the mean on a state-by-state basis.
We don’t just leave things to the users. The Price Marketplace team is actively recruiting local individuals or market vendors who are neutral in their interest about food prices. Prices from these contributors — our price collectors — are updated directly by the admin.
We believe these contributions to be reliable based on our extensive collection agreement and process.
2. Addressing Unverified Prices on E-commerce Platforms
Above, we explained how we are building Nigeria’s first reliable and frequently updated database of food prices. This positions our platform as a strong reference point.
E-commerce platforms can crosscheck vendor-provided food prices against ours. This helps mitigate overpriced vendor listings and encourages returning purchases.
We understand that a manual crosschecking process can be difficult. As a result, we encourage e-commerce platforms to look out for our upcoming price data API, which they can plug directly into their systems.
The goal is simple: transparency that benefits both platforms and consumers.
Conclusion
Unverified online prices are a headache. Whether they exist due to technical implementations or purposeful vendor actions, they are not welcomed.
Trust is the foundation of digital commerce. When prices cannot be verified, trust begins to weaken.
The Price Marketplace is building a solution rooted in community updates, transparent averages, and structured price collection.
Before your next market run, stop by The Price Marketplace.
Because knowing the price before you pay it changes everything.