You can know exactly what you want, but if you can't find it easily, you eventually just give up.
I've had this happen more than once. The product exists, I just can't seem to get to it.
Maybe product discovery is more important than we give it credit for.
Buy one new thing and suddenly you notice five other things that need changing.
New sofa → new curtains.
New laptop → new desk.
It's like the first purchase starts a whole project you never planned for.
Anyone else experience this?
This is a question we’ve been thinking about at Megamart.
It’s easy to say:
“People just aren’t used to shopping online.”
But our research suggests the problem may be deeper than that.
When someone goes to a physical shop, they get things that online shopping sometimes struggles to provide:
• They can see the product.
• They can touch it.
• They can ask questions.
• They can judge the seller.
• They can take the product home immediately.
• They feel more confident about what they are buying.
So perhaps the real challenge for ecommerce in Tanzania isn’t convincing people to stop shopping physically.
Perhaps it is removing the reasons they still need to.
For a customer in Dar es Salaam, saving a trip through traffic is valuable.
But convenience alone may not be enough.
If the customer doesn't trust the seller, can't understand the product, isn't confident about what will arrive, or doesn't know when the order will arrive, the convenience disappears.
This leads to an interesting question:
What would an online shopping experience need to do for you to choose it over visiting a physical shop?
At Megamart, we believe the future of ecommerce should be built around removing friction — not simply adding more technology.
And this conversation is bigger than Megamart.
It is about understanding how Tanzanians actually shop, what they trust, and what the future of retail in Tanzania could look like.
So let's start with one question:
What is the ONE thing that would make you choose online shopping over a physical store?
Trust?
Price?
Convenience?
Delivery?
Product variety?
Or something else?
Tell us why.