OLX issues new guidelines to manage adverts

OLX Country Manager Peter Ndiang’ui speaks at Intercontinental Hotel in Nairobi on April 25, 2017 during the launch of a new service. He has said they want to ensure balanced visibility. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • OLX also introduced a new phone number verification feature in order to make its platform secure and trustworthy.

OLX, a popular online trading platform, has moved to tighten the verification process for electronic traders on its platform to boost online marketing.

In the past, OLX Country Manager Peter Ndiang’ui said, online traders would put up their adverts but flood the platform with similar items under different business account names, therefore, reducing visibility for sellers on the platform.

“By letting them sell on our platform without permits, they would post very many similar item adverts under different business names and visibility for our sellers seemed to dwindle,” he said.

BUSINESS PERMITS
With a majority of traders selling electronics on the platform, OLX is verifying that category of adverts first and plans to roll out the exercise in other categories in the next few months.

The new move requires traders in electronics, using the platform, to produce business permits first before their adverts are published on the site.

“This is to ensure that only businesses with permits post on OLX as business franchises, so as to manage the number of business adverts on the platform,” Mr Ndiang’ui said.

SELLERS
The site has also capped business adverts to 13 per week and 50 per account for every seller with an OLX account to enable the site to offer a variety of items to their buyers.

“Our platform is predominantly consumer to consumer (C2C), with 80 per cent C2C and 20 per cent business to consumer (B2C).

"Businesses as we know, have numerous items to sell and are very aggressive at selling on our platform,” the manager pointed out.

Since the process began, 40 per cent of sellers of electronic products on the platform have already submitted their permits.

SECURITY

OLX hopes that all dealers of electronic products adhere to the new process by end of September.

OLX also introduced a new phone number verification feature in order to make its platform secure and trustworthy.

The phone number verification is mandatory for sellers who want to list their products for sale on OLX.

VISIBILITY
Mr Ndiang’ui however moved to allay the fears that some traders might be locked out of the site, saying their intention was not to stop anyone from using the platform under the new verification measures.

“We are not locking them out but putting measures to ensure balanced visibility of both B2C and C2C on our platform.

"The permit verification process will help us offer electronic items from different businesses for our buyers to choose from while giving C2C sellers, who form a majority, a fair share of visibility,” he said.