Shop for Me: Send a Store to Buy It for You

Sometimes what you want isn't on any shelf you can reach: the phone that sold out everywhere, the fabric only one market stocks, a gift that has to be picked up and delivered across town today. You know a store that could get it: the gadget plug, the market runner, the shop that always finds a way. What's been missing is a safe way to say "get it for me" and pay without the gamble.

That's what Shop for me is. Stores on Paylo can now take shopping and errand requests directly from their store page, and every naira you pay waits in escrow until your order is in your hands.

Tell the store what you want

On a store that offers it, you'll see a Shop for me card on the store's page. Tap it, describe what you're after, as specific or as rough as you like, and add photos if you have them. A screenshot from Instagram works.

If the store charges a service fee, you pay it to send the request. The fee is flat, shown before you type a word, and it's the store's own price for the legwork. The store only sees your request once the fee is paid.

An estimate before any shopping happens

The store looks at your request and sends back an estimate: what the items will actually cost. Nothing happens until you approve it. If the price isn't right, nothing moves.

Approve the estimate and the store goes shopping.

A bill that can't grow

When the store has what you asked for, it sends the final bill with a receipt or photos of what it bought. For a shopping request, the bill can never be more than the estimate you approved. No surprises at the end, no "price changed" after the fact.

You pay the bill, and the store sets off with your order, by its own rider or the shop itself.

Every naira waits until you have it

Both payments, the service fee and the money for the goods, are held in escrow by Paylo. The store can see you've paid and gets to work, but nothing reaches it until you confirm your order arrived. Then everything releases at once.

So the store is never working for free, and you're never paying on trust alone.

For store owners: turn it on in minutes

If people already ask you to "help me find" or "help me pick up", Shop for me turns that hustle into orders with protection on both sides.

In the Paylo Business app, open What you sell and switch on Shop & concierge. Set your service fee, which is what you charge for the legwork on top of what you spend, and add a photo and a short note so buyers know what you're good at finding.

Requests land in Orders → Requests, and only after the buyer has paid your fee. From one screen you send the estimate, attach receipts to the final bill, and hand delivery to your own rider or do it yourself. Your fee and the goods money release to you together when the buyer confirms delivery.

Shop for me or Ask The Plug?

Shop for me is for when you know the store you want: you're asking that shop, at its price, with its fee. Ask The Plug in the Paylo app is for when you don't know who can get it: our sourcing partners hunt it down and send you quotes to pick from. Both end the same way: a protected order you can track, paid out to the store only when it arrives.

Get started

Look for the Shop for me section on a store's Paylo page to send your first request. Run a store and already get "help me find" messages? Open your free Paylo store and take those requests with escrow on both sides.