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Shepherding online classified payments

28 Jan 2016

Shopping online classifieds usually means having to draw wads of cash before meeting a stranger on a street corner, because you really want that textbook or iPhone they advertised.

Escrow service Shepherd Trade Secure, which is specifically designed for the South African market, removes the risks associated with face-to-face dealings with dodgy sellers or just plain weird buyers, by taking cash and personal contact out of the online classified equation.

Powered by Standard Bank and endorsed by Gumtree South Africa, Shepherd is South Africa's first true third-party holding service partnered with a courier. This means Shepherd reduces the risk of fraud for both parties, by holding the buyer's money in trust and releasing the funds only once the parcel has been delivered, inspected and accepted by the buyer.

How does it work?

Let's paint a picture. Raj in Joburg wants to sell his vintage camera and places an online classified to see if there are any takers. Kim in Cape Town spots the ad and they start chatting online. Kim tells Raj that she would like to Shepherd him the money and he agrees to sign up on www.paywithshepherd.com so that Kim can make the payment.

Once Kim's money is securely held by Shepherd via Standard Bank, Raj is notified and logs in to pay the cheap courier fee. RAM couriers collect the camera from Raj and deliver it to Kim. She inspects the camera in the presence of the courier driver and if happy with the condition, gives the couriers the thumbs up. Shepherd, notified of the successful delivery, transfers Kim's money to Raj less the Shepherd transaction fee - 3.95% of the transaction value with a minimum charge of R30. It's that simple.

If the item is not as advertised, Kim sends it back with RAM and gets her money refunded - less the return courier fee. RAM returns the camera to Raj and Shepherd waives the transaction fee.

Remember, there is no minimum transaction fee when you #paywithshepherd until 22 Feb! pic.twitter.com/jzRN3raacq
- Shepherd (@paywithshepherd) January 28, 2016

With students heading back to varsity, Shepherd has taken steps to reduce the difficulties and dangers associated with the trade in second-hand books. In light of this, it has decided to waive the minimum transaction fee of R30 on all transactions (until Monday, 22 February 2016), which means that, for example, if a student sells their old textbook for R350 on Gumtree, their transaction fee would be R10,32 only if using a cheque card and R13,82 if using a credit card.

Shepherd allows card payments and there's no need to navigate away from the site to your bank's website in order to set up a beneficiary and make an EFT, and no waiting for days for your funds to clear.

Shepherd also negotiated bulk shipping deals with RAM to limit courier fees and parcels can be tracked on www.ram.co.za.

"We created Shepherd as the only third-party holding service partnered with a courier, to reduce the risks for both buyers and sellers making online classified transactions," said MD Martin Reynolds.