Zimbabwe-born software guru, Dakarai Mshoperi, has launched a new auction web app, named Preloved. The app was launched on the 1st of January in South Africa and users have already started posting items on the site. Preloved is a term used in Southern Africa for used items. According to Dakarai, “people can buy preloved things at prices starting from as little as a dollar.”

“Preloved is not just another ecommerce startup, but one that has had careful thought on how to make online shopping more fun, and exciting – this is what makes us different from any other marketplace.”

“We are thrilled to partner with Hamish Stockdale of the “Cape Town Buy, Sell, & Swop” Facebook group with over 110,000 members in Cape Town to transition them over to Preloved for our launch, and giving all the members of the group an online garage sale where buying, and selling is simplified to the bare minimum, allowing an easy, and user-friendly shopping experience – all the products posted on Preloved are automatically posted on our Facebook Page.”

Preloved is easy to use. Users can go to the website on any device, whether desktop, or mobile and still get the best experience. When browsing to Preloved for the first time, users will see a grid list of countries, and cities. Once they select the one appropriate for them, they immediately see preloved products on sale in their city, and can search for particular things. Bidding on an items is easy, users simply tap on  products, and enter how much they would want to pay, then tap on bid. This immediately makes them the highest bidders on those products.

There are checks to make sure the sellers cannot bid on their products, and other ones that make sure the bids are not less than the current ones. When products are listed, the sellers add a date when the biddings will end, so when users tap on products, they see a countdown timer that ticks until bidding has ended, upon which a message pops up saying, “Going once, going twice, sold!”.

Preloved began with the idea that buying, and selling can be made simpler, and safer. With the auction model, you have the chance to get the best possible price for your preloved item by opening it up to the market, and getting the highest bid, said Dakarai.

One may ask, “Isn’t that too risky?”, not at all! You also have the control to set the base reserve price, and set the finishing time; giving you piece of mind.

Preloved is simple to use, it’s free from commercial ads, saving you hours of time scrolling through corporate ads, and allowing you to get straight to the products. Posting your items couldn’t be easier with the mobile friendly website, and while you’re at it, give our Facebook page a like to keep up to date with all the latest news, and products; we post every preloved item you post to the Preloved Facebook page, and Facebook groups in your city to give you the widest possible audience. You are not charged for posting and selling.

To make money, Preloved does not charge sellers to list their preloved products, and it do not take a percentage commission from every sale. It only gets one US Dollar (US$1) from the top bidders via PayPal, or Bitcoin in order to reveal the full contact details of the seller so that they can arrange to meet with sellers to pay, and collect. That means the buyers can pay the sellers in any form of payment they both agree upon, outside of Preloved.

Preloved will be available to users from all other African countries within the first half of 2018.

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