kwadwon

No offense taking. You bring up very valid points and concerns and they are all things that we've considered and are working on. We have answers to some, and there are still a lot of questions we don't have clear cut answers to but the fastest way to have something safe and secure for people to use is for us to expose all the cracks and quickly fix it. We appreciate all your questions amazon_not. Please keep it coming.

Very valid point from a couriers perspective. We will consider and safe and systematic way to do this so we don't run into cases where a courier claims an import duties were collected when that wasn't the case. Definitely appreciate all the valid concerns you bring up.

Yes, for the most part the travelers are people who go back and forth between Nigeria and US, and Ghana and US often and already practice this behavior, but now have an option to make extra money from it and potentially make it safer than the behavior they practice now.

This is very true. Because we do purchase the items ourselves we do see the vendors who are shipping the items and so we can screen for this and mitigate the risk. We are definitely going to invest in a machine to X-Ray packages to further ensure the safety of travelers. Thanks for pointing this out.

Thanks for the suggestion. This is definitely something we have in the pipeline. One of the constraints we are dealing with is that often people will turn of their phones when they travel internationally. We do get a local (international) number to contact the travelers but a good number of those phones don't have scanning capability. An alternative is to have the shopper enter a code via sms. The traveler then gets a confirmation that validates the shopper is who they say they are and it also confirms to us that the shopper picked up the package (the traveler would not know this code).

The process of buying items in the US and carrying it back home to Ghana or Nigeria is one that is already pretty common. It is true that occasionally people are detained however. Any lost goods would most likely need to be replaced or money will be refunded to shoppers until we can work out a fair and sensible agreement with local authorities. This will be a pretty big issue for us to address.

We do ask the shopper to confirm receipt of the item but we also do follow up with the traveler. In future we may have the traveler take a photo documenting delivery of the item so that a shopper who has received an item doesn't deny that that they have in fact received it.

That is a very valid question and one we are currently working on coming up with a good solution for. The fee for duties is something we'd include in the shopper's fee but there are many cases that we'd expect to have to take on that cost initially as we iterate and refine the process. There are many questions still to be answered but we are looking to work with local authorities in Ghana and Nigeria as well.

If the item being delivered is over a certain value we'd have the shoppers (in Ghana or Nigeria) cover duties and taxes.

We do hope to iterate and make the process more seamless but right now we package and seal the items in Shypmate packaging when we send it to the traveler. It is a very valid issue with preventing any contraband and making sure the traveler is safe. The couriers are also vetted before we allow them to carry packages for us. There is a certain amount of trust on both ends that is required for this to be a seamless process.

My name is Kwadwo, one of the cofounders of Shypmate. Shypmate is a way for people in Nigeria and Ghana to buy items and goods from the US and get it delivered through a traveler heading to one of those countries. We pay the travelers, the shoppers get their item at an affordable shipping price, and everyone is mostly happy. Perry Ogwuche, another cofounder, immigrated from Nigeria to the US for school and as a student had a pretty hard time finding an affordable way to send things back home. He often would wait until a friend was traveling back before sending things. So we started Shypmate to facilitate that behavior and process.

We'd love your thoughts on feedback on the idea and process. People can make orders through the website, WhatsApp number, or email. We only deliver items that have been purchased through Shypmate and never let travelers carry items that Shypmate does not buy directly. On the other end, shoppers can meet travelers at the airport or pay an extra fee for local delivery. Our goal is to make international shopping and shipping affordable and fast in countries where UPS, Fedex, and DHL charge too much.