From what we heard, a one Joshua Mugisha, formerly of Brighter Monday, and his crew are the brains behind this intriguing remote-shopping app. But don’t take our word for it. After all, they do have a website and social media presence. Look them up or skip all that and check out their app on Google Play or the iTunes App Store.
Qwicart: Ease of signup
So, basically, what Qwicart does is quite simple albeit convenient from a couch potato point of view. Qwicart catalogues a sizeable chunk of available shopping items in a number of Qwicart-affiliated supermarkets in Kampala and its environs, Entebbe, and Mukono for starters. Signing up is three-pronged. You can easily login via Facebook and Google. The third option is to create an account from scratch. We noticed a slight glitch though, when we were creating an account. You have to tick a box that says you have read Qwicart’s User Agreement. The thing is, we hadn’t read the agreement and couldn’t locate it either. Oops!
Online shopping with item prices
The app has a location service that does the finding for you if you are unsure how to proceed. You won’t find all the supermarkets in your vicinity, as far as we can tell. The good news is, you will find the closest affiliated supermarkets. In our case, denning in Najjera, the best the app could do for us was Quick Pick Supermarket in Namugongo or alternatively, Kenjoy Supermarket on Ntinda-Bukoto road. That’s fair enough. If you are a guy like me and fully understand the bro-code, you’ll not be caught dead wasting time window-shopping in any random supermarket. Shopping ought to be an aim-target-pickup sort of thing. And supermarkets don’t make it any easier, not with aisles upon aisles of basically the same product to choose from. It’s the jungle out there, I tell you. What Qwicart has done is carefully catalogue all these shopping items on their app. What’s more exciting is that the prices are included as well. So what would take hours perusing for, in a supermarket, you can now do so in the comfort of your home. Nevertheless, let’s not hope the price of sugar remains the same from the time I check out to when I go pick up my shopping cart. I am taking screenshots!
Grocery shopping experience
We went ahead and did some shopping, the likes of which we have never done before. Obviously, it was only a trial. But we did try to simulate what a hip and classy urbanite with paycheck backing them up (or Mommy/Daddy-bags) would shop for. Considering I live somewhere in Najjera, I chose Quick Pick Supermarket in Namugongo, open 10 A.M to 8 P.M. My total shopping cart set me back Ush. 80,800.. I went ahead and checked out. At the bottom of my item list, I observed a Service Charge of Ush. 3,500. There are two options to get your hands on your items. You can physically go to the Supermarket and simply pick up your stuff, plus the Ush. 3,500 service charge. Or alternatively, you can have it delivered to you. A delivery fee of Ush. 3,000 is quite alright, given the stress of At the bottom of my item list, I observed a Service Charge of Ush. 3,500. There are two options to get your hands on your items. You can physically go to the Supermarket and simply pick up your stuff, plus the Ush. 3,500 service charge. Or alternatively, you can have it delivered to you. A delivery fee of Ush. 3,000 is quite alright, given the stress of travelling to and fro.
Loyalty rewards
The second option would push our initial shopping charge of Ush. 80,800 to Ush. 87,300. Still fair, no? At the bottom of our receipt, we noticed that we earned a loyalty of Ush. 3,200. Not that I am a prolific shopaholic, but that’s quite something in the grand scheme of things. You have up your loyalty amount and save up a decent amount come Christmas or something. You can even monitor your loyalty rewards across the various supermarkets straight in the app. Payment methods include Pay on Delivery, Pay on Pickup and the Qwicart Wallet.
Convenience
The whole process is quite convenient, if you ask me. Unlike what happens when I am in a physical supermarket, I didn’t get overwhelmed or hassled by nauseatingly helpful attendants. In the comfort of my home, I made collected decisions as to what to buy, based on my wallet. I find the option of simply picking my stuff up at the supermarket rather novel but so cool! This brings me back to the bro-code. Get in, get your stuff, get out! No hassle! I rather like that. That a delivery option is available is an added bonus. It helps when you got kids and can’t leave them unsupervised. Or when you just can’t be bothered to get up and leave the comfort of your home. We have all been there.
