Delivery is currently the weakest link in the ecommerce value chain in Nigeria. While other advanced economies (such as the United States) have begun to deploy advanced technologies such as drones in order delivery, the practice in Nigeria remains basic. While the Nigerian Postal Service with offices in all the 774 local governments in Nigeria and other remote locations should have been Nigerian answer to this delivery challenge, it has remained largely unresponsive to the market and hence has been left behind.

Ecommerce in Nigeria is built around PAY ON DELIVERY! It remains the most comfortable option for buyers as they are able to inspect the physical products before irrevocably committing themselves financially. This leaves the merchant at the mercy of the buyer, despite incurring costs for arranging the delivery. Being the wearer of the shoe that knows where it pinches, the ecommerce merchant must continually evolve and develop skills to remain in business.

What are the obstacles to delivery?

This is a good platform to discuss and weigh how to go about effective delivery. Like you rightly said, despite incuring cost buyer can reject items on delivery. How do we solve such issue?

JessNigeria:
Delivery is currently the weakest link in the ecommerce value chain in Nigeria. While other advanced economies (such as the United States) have begun to deploy advanced technologies such as drones in order delivery, the practice in Nigeria remains basic. While the Nigerian Postal Service with offices in all the 774 local governments in Nigeria and other remote locations should have been Nigerian answer to this delivery challenge, it has remained largely unresponsive to the market and hence has been left behind.
Ecommerce in Nigeria is built around PAY ON DELIVERY! It remains the most comfortable option for buyers as they are able to inspect the physical products before irrevocably committing themselves financially. This leaves the merchant at the mercy of the buyer, despite incurring costs for arranging the delivery. Being the wearer of the shoe that knows where it pinches, the ecommerce merchant must continually evolve and develop skills to remain in business.
What are the obstacles to delivery?

To solve the issue you have to ask the right question. And that question is "why do customers reject items?" Customer reject items for 2 major reasons.
1. bad product (this could be bad packaging, wrong sizing, counterfeit quality, etc)
2. delayed delivery.

other reasons also exist but these are the bone of contention.

If you can ensure your product are of right quality and description as advertised, you have solved one quarter of the problem.
If you can ensure prompt delivery, you have solved three quarter of the problem. then there is the last quarter of problem which is your own internal administration, processing, coordination and accounting..
Summary is if you ensure correct product quality and deliver on time, you leave the customer with very very very little room for rejections.

Manicorpsystems:
To solve the issue you have to ask the right question. And that question is "why do customers reject items?" Customer reject items for 2 major reasons.
1. bad product (this could be bad packaging, wrong sizing, counterfeit quality, etc)
2. delayed delivery.

other reasons also exist but these are the bone of contention.

If you can ensure your product are of right quality and description as advertised, you have solved one quarter of the problem.
If you can ensure prompt delivery, you have solved three quarter of the problem. then there is the last quarter of problem which is your own internal administration, processing, coordination and accounting..
Summary is if you ensure correct product quality and deliver on time, you leave the customer with very very very little room for rejections.

Then there's the issue of unserious buyer that you have no control over.
Someone might need an item and place orders on 3 different platforms. They go ahead and confirm the orders and wait for first to deliver.

Manicorpsystems:
To solve the issue you have to ask the right question. And that question is "why do customers reject items?" Customer reject items for 2 major reasons.
1. bad product (this could be bad packaging, wrong sizing, counterfeit quality, etc)
2. delayed delivery.

other reasons also exist but these are the bone of contention.

If you can ensure your product are of right quality and description as advertised, you have solved one quarter of the problem.
If you can ensure prompt delivery, you have solved three quarter of the problem. then there is the last quarter of problem which is your own internal administration, processing, coordination and accounting..
Summary is if you ensure correct product quality and deliver on time, you leave the customer with very very very little room for rejections.

I love your approach to this issue. You must ask the right questions to find the right answers. The reasons you highlighted are major, though there may be more.

On the issue of bad product and the examples enumerated, packing the wrong product or colour type is inclusive. Sellers are known to apply underhand methods to push their products and packing wrong colour, poor quality, different product, etc are some of them. Such items usually end up being rejected on delivery or returned if the buyer did not check before accepting delivery. A seller that acquires a reputation for this may end up killing his business.

Delayed delivery on the other hand depends on both the seller and the delivery party (if its a third party). Sellers must push out the order within 24hrs or at least make first contact with the buyer. If using a third party delivery agent, sellers must carefully choose whom to use as delivery partners have been known to clogs in the wheels of seller's progress.

From our experience, the delivery infrastructure is just not in place to meet the high expectations of buyers, as the courier industry is not responding fast enough. As ecommerce practitioners ourselves, we tried most of the big names as well as some upcoming ones, but it was just impossible for them to meet our service expectations, hence the birth of our own delivery platform.

veeluv2015:


Then there's the issue of unserious buyer that you have no control over.
Someone might need an item and place orders on 3 different platforms. They go ahead and confirm the orders and wait for first to deliver.

Buyers can be very interesting. Some even order in expectation of a payment and if the money doesn't come, there goes the order. However, these kind of buyers are easily weeded out via the phone call after the order is made. Again, if you use a fast delivery service, your product will get to the buyer quite fast, probably faster than your competitors.

).

JessNigeria:


I love your approach to this issue. You must ask the right questions to find the right answers. The reasons you highlighted are major, though there may be more.

On the issue of bad product and the examples enumerated, packing the wrong product or colour type is inclusive. Sellers are known to apply underhand methods to push their products and packing wrong colour, poor quality, different product, etc are some of them. Such items usually end up being rejected on delivery or returned if the buyer did not check before accepting delivery. A seller that acquires a reputation for this may end up killing his business.

Delayed delivery on the other hand depends on both the seller and the delivery party (if its a third party). Sellers must push out the order within 24hrs or at least make first contact with the buyer. If using a third party delivery agent, sellers must carefully choose whom to use as delivery partners have been known to clogs in the wheels of seller's progress.

From our experience, the delivery infrastructure is just not in place to meet the high expectations of buyers, as the courier industry is not responding fast enough. As ecommerce practitioners ourselves, we tried most of the big names as well as some upcoming ones, but it was just impossible for them to meet our service expectations, hence the birth of our own delivery platform.

Exactly, depending on 3rd party courier delivery will only worsen your business as d courier is only interested in minimising his costs, not in expediting your delivery. So the best solution is to have your own delivery service. this is easy if you are dealing with small items but it becomes problematic as the sizes ot the items get larger. and much complicated when the orders are from another state. setting up such a platform is capital intensive and not profitable to the business. The result is high delivery fees attached to the orders which in turn will drive away the customers u r trying to serve.

however, the key i employed to resolve this was simple, communication. Using psychology to conquer clients. Keep the customer constantly informed and engaged on the status of the delivery leaves dem feeling like they owe it to you to reward ur efforts. sounds plain idiotic but it worked. not all d time but it did reduce cancellations.

Manicorpsystems:


Exactly, depending on 3rd party courier delivery will only worsen your business as d courier is only interested in minimising his costs, not in expediting your delivery. So the best solution is to have your own delivery service. this is easy if you are dealing with small items but it becomes problematic as the sizes ot the items get larger. and much complicated when the orders are from another state. setting up such a platform is capital intensive and not profitable to the business. The result is high delivery fees attached to the orders which in turn will drive away the customers u r trying to serve.

however, the key i employed to resolve this was simple, communication. Using psychology to conquer clients. Keep the customer constantly informed and engaged on the status of the delivery leaves dem feeling like they owe it to you to reward ur efforts. sounds plain idiotic but it worked. not all d time but it did reduce cancellations.

Maintaining communication with the buyer is a key element of the delivery chain as it ensures that the buyer is carried along, particularly where there are delays.

This topic is highly informative as i want to go into E commerce and i have realized that logistics is a really big problem...Please,successful E commerce platforms should give tips on how to overcome the various problems that arise from selling via the internet.Thanks

yvonne001:
This topic is highly informative as i want to go into E commerce and i have realized that logistics is a really big problem...Please,successful E commerce platforms should give tips on how to overcome the various problems that arise from selling via the internet.Thanks

For a beginner, choosing the right delivery partner is critical to the success of your venture as you would definitely need to deliver your products across Nigeria to grow fast.

Quick delivery, responsiveness, commitment, diligence, courtesy, honesty, etc are some of the qualities to look out for in a delivery service.

.

Good day my good people
Please help me beg this man called JessNigeria to pay my money ... I used his company to deliver goods to abuja last two weeks ( which the goods as been confirmed by customers it has been delivered and has been paid for ) believing he will pay in on Monday last week till now l didn't hear from him ,he doesn't pick my calls and doesn't respond on what'sapp ......please help me beg him to pay my money

As I run a website, I'm personally registered to ACE logistics...www.ace.ng......thier services are top notch and they offer pay on delivery services. Once they get your money from d customer expect a remittance to your acct in 2 to 3 days . The equally send a variance report to help with cash reconciliations. My only grouse is, on thier pick up website, only lagos, Abuja and Portharcout is active, other states are greyed out...and oh I stay in portharcout so I don't know if thatso why....one last info, when you register with them you'll have to pay 17,500 into your wallet. This money is used for your shipments and you get to top up as it reduces
When I was in kaduna, I used courier plus. They are equally good...but in comparison to ACE it's like comparing an old generation bank to a zenith Bank! ( no offence courier plus o). With ACE you get that modern feel to the courier business, e.g ACE has an online pick up/drop off form..that of courier plus is manual.....for cash remittances after a pay on delivery they are equally trustworthy. But NO variance report like ACE, it's mainly manual. One strong advantage over ACE is that they have offices nationwide hence deliver nationwide.
I also discovered Konga express. The logistics arm of konga. Www.kos.com. ng. I've spoken with them and all and they seem good but I haven't used them. To become a merchant on thier platform, you'll need to register with 50k in your wallet, these money is used to service your account and you get to top up when depleted. If you don't want to register, then walk into any of thier offices and drop off but charges are more for a drop in customer. You can calculate thier charges on thier website using the calculator. For example, as a merchant, ph to lag is 1,500 as against drop off of 1,900. They deliver nationwide and v offices nationwide..this is a strong plus.
Finally also just recently discovered God is God logistics...www.giglogistics.ng....this spans from God is good motors...www.gigs. com. This company honestly suprised me as I bumped into them by mistake. Drove past thier beautiful terminus in kaduna and out of curiosity walked in. Highly efficient and I'll recommend them for logistics and for transport. I shipped personal effects, 4 big Ghana must go bags of my shop items from kaduna to ph when I was relocating and in 2days...yes 2 days I got called my items was in thier ph office! For thier travel arm sef, thier website is similar to that of an airline, you can book for a ticket online and this usually comes with a discount o...you even choose your seats online..with a diagram of the seating positions displayed so you see which seat you are choosing! I made enquiries for thier logistics arm and I got to know that as a merchant, you also pay in 50k which is used to service your account. My only grouse however is that they have a strong presence in the south but not much up north...for now, they don't deliver nationwide but I'm told they are expanding.
This info I'm sharing took me 3 years to get as an commerce merchant...I hope the info comes in handy to someone someday...all the best!

Made a mistake on the God is good logistics website addy...it's www.giglogistics.ng

Wonderful post op, this reminds me of an article on the core elements of building an ecommerce website, find link below: https://wsiaxon.com/11-core-elements-needed-increase-ecommerce-sales/

This delivery bike is for sale, contact 08062493812

sparklebug:
As I run a website, I'm personally registered to ACE logistics...www.ace.ng......thier services are top notch and they offer pay on delivery services. Once they get your money from d customer expect a remittance to your acct in 2 to 3 days . The equally send a variance report to help with cash reconciliations. My only grouse is, on thier pick up website, only lagos, Abuja and Portharcout is active, other states are greyed out...and oh I stay in portharcout so I don't know if thatso why....one last info, when you register with them you'll have to pay 17,500 into your wallet. This money is used for your shipments and you get to top up as it reduces
When I was in kaduna, I used courier plus. They are equally good...but in comparison to ACE it's like comparing an old generation bank to a zenith Bank! ( no offence courier plus o). With ACE you get that modern feel to the courier business, e.g ACE has an online pick up/drop off form..that of courier plus is manual.....for cash remittances after a pay on delivery they are equally trustworthy. But NO variance report like ACE, it's mainly manual. One strong advantage over ACE is that they have offices nationwide hence deliver nationwide.
I also discovered Konga express. The logistics arm of konga. Www.kos.com. ng. I've spoken with them and all and they seem good but I haven't used them. To become a merchant on thier platform, you'll need to register with 50k in your wallet, these money is used to service your account and you get to top up when depleted. If you don't want to register, then walk into any of thier offices and drop off but charges are more for a drop in customer. You can calculate thier charges on thier website using the calculator. For example, as a merchant, ph to lag is 1,500 as against drop off of 1,900. They deliver nationwide and v offices nationwide..this is a strong plus.
Finally also just recently discovered God is God logistics...www.giglogistics.ng....this spans from God is good motors...www.gigs. com. This company honestly suprised me as I bumped into them by mistake. Drove past thier beautiful terminus in kaduna and out of curiosity walked in. Highly efficient and I'll recommend them for logistics and for transport. I shipped personal effects, 4 big Ghana must go bags of my shop items from kaduna to ph when I was relocating and in 2days...yes 2 days I got called my items was in thier ph office! For thier travel arm sef, thier website is similar to that of an airline, you can book for a ticket online and this usually comes with a discount o...you even choose your seats online..with a diagram of the seating positions displayed so you see which seat you are choosing! I made enquiries for thier logistics arm and I got to know that as a merchant, you also pay in 50k which is used to service your account. My only grouse however is that they have a strong presence in the south but not much up north...for now, they don't deliver nationwide but I'm told they are expanding.
This info I'm sharing took me 3 years to get as an commerce merchant...I hope the info comes in handy to someone someday...all the best!

thank you for sharing this. does GIG accept payment from clients on your behalf?

I am an e-commerce merchant, i tried all this courier companies and they failed in one way or the order.
Kos now takes till eternity to deliver, courier-plus the same thing and you will call and beg before they pay you, GIG logistics, their workers has turned wayward, something must be done about logistics before e-commerce will grow in Nigeria.

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How can one partner with these delivery companies and be a pick up agent for them...

Cash On Delivery is one option you can give your customers that will grow your customers, that is if you are into eCommerce.

Need eCommerce delivery solution withing Ibadan? You can use NaijaAlpha Logistics Services, I use them for the delivery of my supplement business and they deliver very fast.

If you are into eCommerce, you can give them a trial: https://naijaalphalogistics.com.ng

...

JessNigeria:


For a beginner, choosing the right delivery partner is critical to the success of your venture as you would definitely need to deliver your products across Nigeria to grow fast.

Quick delivery, responsiveness, commitment, diligence, courtesy, honesty, etc are some of the qualities to look out for in a delivery service.

Are you still operating?

healthgoals:
Cash On Delivery is one option you can give your customers that will grow your customers, that is if you are into eCommerce.

Need eCommerce delivery solution withing Ibadan? You can use NaijaAlpha Logistics Services, I use them for the delivery of my supplement business and they deliver very fast.

If you are into eCommerce, you can give them a trial: https://naijaalphalogistics.com.ng

Are you still operating?

realdentist:
thank you for sharing this. does GIG accept payment from clients on your behalf?

Yes, they do.