Tonaton vs OLX Ghana, where should you buy from?

It’s a battle. Tonaton vs OLX!

Recently, I have been using Tonaton and OLX for a variety of purposes. Most importantly, in January alone, I have bought and sold more than 4 goods between these two services. I decided to write this for users of these sites or for those who would want to start buying from either Tonaton or OLX.
If you have not tried online classifieds before, you should check out the last part of this post.

History

The name “Tonaton” means “Buy and Sell” and is by far the most popular online classifieds. Tonaton.com started somewhere in 2013 at a time where online business was not quite the thing. I heard about tonaton first time on Viasat 1 television. About two years later, Tonaton.com moved forward to enhance online security by becoming Ghana’s first online classifieds to require physical or electronic ID verification of posters on the platform.

OLX is the world’s leading classifieds platform in growth markets and is available in more than 40 countries and over 50 languages. Here in Ghana, OLX.com.gh became Tonaton’s competitor and fierce rival with a lot of adverts coupled with the very good OLX app. “OLX” is said to have been derived from “OnLine eXchange”.

Where should you buy from?

Security

When buying from online, one of the factors we all have to look at is security. How sure are you the person selling the goods actually has the good. How do you know he/she claims to be who they are? What about buying something and realizing it is totally different from what was advertised? Both Tonaton and OLX offer some level of security for their users.

OLX verifies it’s sellers using three main parameters. These are phone, email and Facebook. A user can be verified once they complete the phone verification and can post ads straight away. OLX also displays clearly which verifications a user has passed. Therefore, the buyer knows and is able to make a sound decision. Personally, I would prefer to buy from someone who has at least a phone and facebook verification on OLX. Emails can always be created and dumped and there is nothing scammers would not do.

Tonaton has more stringent verification procedures and when followed, these users become “Tonaton Members” with a blue badge to show. These users are verified by phone, a photo ID and their business or home locations if any. This means you can trust that these sellers are real people. According to Tonaton, verified members can easily be traced by them if they ever perpetuate evil or dupe buyers. Sounds easy, huh?

Value Added Services

VAS is very important to users. What else can we benefit from an online classifieds website? Well, I dare to say Tonaton is way ahead of OLX in this regard. Tonaton have their very own “delivery system” where you can choose for Tonaton to deliver what you have bought. How does this work? It’s simple! Tonaton goes to the seller, inspects the goods and brings it to you. You inspect the goods delivered by tonaton and only pay when you are satisfied it is what you want. I did not readily find any any VAS exclusive to OLX. There is the usual contact the seller via email directly on the website, and the option to view the locality of the seller.

Customer Satisfaction and User Interface Friendliness

It took a while to get this post together, as I did not want to it solely reflect my views only. I spoke to a few friends and sought out to understand why they would use either OLX or Tonaton. I realised when wanting to buy something, most people visit both classifieds site to check if there are any people selling the stuff they needed. One observation I made was people claimed the stuff on OLX were less expensive than those on Tonaton. A lot of the people I spoke to were happier to have bought from OLX rather than Tonaton. This was because of the unverifiable claim that prices on OLX were less. A friend also added that more ads on Tonaton had already been sold but were still lurking on the site. The storry was different for OLX.

Moreover, I personally think OLX has a better User Interface (both website and mobile app) than Tonaton. The OLX site is somewhat kind of semi-minimal and allows you to focus on the most important thing: buying! Tonaton’s website is a bit more clumsy and sometimes annoying, coupled with adverts; makes it less user friendly.

The Verdict

The decision as to where you would buy from should be an informed one based on what is most important to you. Security, Value Added Services, Customer Satisfaction and User Interface Friendliness.

What do you think? Does Tonaton beat OLX? Don’t forget to read our 6 tips on how to buy safely on Tonaton and OLX.