Pay on delivery makes it unprofitable.

Imagine driving all the way only for customer to say you didn't come on time, I've left that location and fails to pick up the goods.

EXCELSMITH:
My friend owns https://every247.com
Mhen, that guy hasn't earn any shit since then, asked him and he said he made sales only seven times within the space of three years (3 years).
No Ads
Only Facebook, Instagram and Twitter Ads.

he has to go blackhat. He should also try AdWords by Google. He should write many articles about the product creating different web 2.0 platform as well. His article or products needs to be shared on various social media platforms.. He needs to be on system 18hours a day to achieve his goal only then he know his right and wrongs.. Oh I forgot, learn SEO

polimaf:
Jumia, Konga, Olx spends heavy on advertisement, and have high operational cost. well, it will be wise if he can set up office in a less operational base like taxify and what Uber presently are doing now, he will enjoy the benefits.

besides, what is he bringing in to change the game? is he following the bandwagon? if he is, then he should forget it

This is really a good question the fellow asked. Jumia and Konga made heavy losses that have definitely been written off. We talking about 40 million dollars for Jumia alone. Google to see specific details but it's huge.

Like I told a client yesterday. The site is one thing and it's like 20% of the work. It is just a window view to the world for your business. You still have to get a back office. Like you rightly suggest, the back office has to be thin.

What exactly is OP selling? How do you handle your suppliers? Are you stocking and tying down cash? Is it a just in time (JIT) model that require little or no storage? I think we call that drop shipping now. How do you handle logistics? I think this is one area Nigeria falls short. Shipping is dependent on the country's existing transportation infrastructure. In the US for instance, the US postal service ships for Amazon. So Amazon really doesn't handle logistics.

Finally, what are you selling? If it's that important, people will buy ecommerce or not. I built an ecommerce for a friend. She sells weight loss products. She really didn't even need the site because she was already selling impressively. Infact, she rarely even remembers I built a site for her which really hurts my effort. But it just means the product is the most critical thing obviously. So think about this.

Marketing is key because you need awareness. She gets 80% of her customers through Instagram. So you have to check out all these issues. Are you a techy person and want to build the site yourself or a business man? Techy people and business and not usually clear on the business goals.

Finally, I think the ecommerce market in Nigeria is over exergerated. I can't remember the last time I shopped online. We think we have the volume to break even. This is how Jumia and Konga did themselves in. Maybe the volume is not that large but if you do your marketing right and do not invest heavily. You might be up to something. All the best.

Think about all these. The ecommerce site does not automatically lead to sales. The products and your awareness campaign does.

polimaf:
Jumia, Konga, Olx spends heavy on advertisement, and have high operational cost. well, it will be wise if he can set up office in a less operational base like taxify and what Uber presently are doing now, he will enjoy the benefits.

besides, what is he bringing in to change the game? is he following the bandwagon? if he is, then he should forget it

Don't forget Olx ran away, Konga ran away before it was bought by zinox computers(yudala)

ikihealthplus:
A friend wants to invest heavily in xx millions of naira but I told him to hold on and do some research on its profitability and sustainability because big Giants like olx, jumia and Konga recorded losses last year due to a couple of factors. So friends in the house, I need your input so my friend doesn't invest ignorantly. Is it wise engaging in e-commerce in Nigeria? What are the challenges and can it be overcome? Mods..lalasticlala please bring this to front page

your friend should go and locate an existing small but promising ecommerce business to buy off or partner with on a legal agreement.

Mimi Nigeria (www.mimi.ng) welcomes prospective investors and serious partners as we target to expand into some key West African countries as part of our underground expansion.

Don't expect people to tell you the secrets of running a successful ecommerce business on an open forum like this...and mind u, most people that maybe giving u tips may never have owned or own ecommerce business before.

Like someone said rightfully again, if your friend is coming to do what others are doing already, it will be difficult for him to penetrate Nigerian market but if he is coming with something new and promising, then he has a chance.


Do you want to start bag reselling business without keeping stock Do you need bags at affordable price than u can get anywhere or on any other online store

Then visit Mimi Nigeria website and just click on the bag u want by browsing through the categories and any of our customer care staff will reply u immediately.

Mimi.ng, the home of affordable bags

tiwiex:


This is really a good question the fellow asked. Jumia and Konga made heavy losses that have definitely been written off. We talking about 40 million dollars for Jumia alone. Google to see specific details but it's huge.

Like I told a client yesterday. The site is one thing and it's like 20% of the work. It is just a window view to the world for your business. You still have to get a back office. Like you rightly suggest, the back office has to be thin.

What exactly is OP selling? How do you handle your suppliers? Are you stocking and tying down cash? Is it a just in time (JIT) model that require little or no storage? I think we call that drop shipping now. How do you handle logistics? I think this is one area Nigeria falls short. Shipping is dependent on the country's existing transportation infrastructure. In the US for instance, the US postal service ships for Amazon. So Amazon really doesn't handle logistics.

Finally, what are you selling? If it's that important, people will buy ecommerce or not. I built an ecommerce for a friend. She sells weight loss products. She really didn't even need the site because she was already selling impressively. Infact, she rarely even remembers I built a site for her which really hurts my effort. But it just means the product is the most critical thing obviously. So think about this.

Marketing is key because you need awareness. She gets 80% of her customers through Instagram. So you have to check out all these issues. Are you a techy person and want to build the site yourself or a business man? Techy people and business and not usually clear on the business goals.

Finally, I think the ecommerce market in Nigeria is over exergerated. I can't remember the last time I shopped online. We think we have the volume to break even. This is how Jumia and Konga did themselves in. Maybe the volume is not that large but if you do your marketing right and do not invest heavily. You might be up to something. All the best.

Think about all these. The ecommerce site does not automatically lead to sales. The products and your awareness campaign does.

You are good. You sound like an expert, I love this

i love it when experts talk about their stuffs.
from a layman's point of view, e-commerce in the present day nigeria requires a lot of cash reserve. the present ones are either been taken over or partnering

.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPfh-qUevrc

Jumia Nigeria CEO - E-commerce has transformed intra-Africa trade

Jumia Nigeria CEO Juliet Anammah says the African Continental Free Trade Agreement will foster partnerships among e-commerce
firms within the continent and impact Nigeria's economy significantly

At last. Africa's very own Facebook, Nairaland and Jiji is here.
Not to take advantage of the African, but to support and promote creative and productive Africans for free.

Visit www.afrikaneedsyou.com and check out what I mean!

He'll encounter a lot of shipping and handling problems.

Instagram is a safer bet if he creates a large following.
And all the money he makes would be tax-free. As you get paid via bank deposits mainly.

In comparison to card commission charges and your online payment gateway options, you save a lot of money via direct debit.

You also save money on hosting, designing and launching an ecommerce website.

He should consider the website when he has created a large following via the gram. Then the transition to the website will come easy as the trust and reviews will already be existent

Ecommerce is about noise making, at least in Nigeria. The conversion rate is low but the noise of adverts is high, hence the money might come in. Another big issue is trust, the system here in Nigeria is overrated really to believe people trust these online stores enough to put in their cards or purchase items not seen.

The best idea is, locate a social network platform that can generate conversion and start pushing things from there and NOT really on website sales except you have a huge marketing budget.

When Jumia started most items they advertised, they never had it, they never had a store but the adverts made them look like they're in business already. Ecommerce is about who can make the loudest advert noise and that's why to break even, it takes a long long time.

.

E-commerce is the future of trade and is a $56 billion industry and Nigeria is catching up.
The big players are losing money, Konga just recapitalised but you see that they did so to expand with a mega Warehouse being built in PH now which means they see a future.
As some are experiencing loses others are also experiencing huge profits with Jumia an example. so it all depends on your strategy, but this is what you need to know. more and more people are buying online.
Untill July this year I was working with Amazon in Dubai and i can tell you they are making insane money but then Amazon.com are operating at a high high level.
I resigned and came back home in July to open my own e-commerce delivery startup "DropOff" and will go live any moment now.
If your friend wants to follow through with his plans I will be happy if you can put me in touch with him so we talk business. But he has to know e-commerce is not for the faint hearted, he has to go the long haul and do a lot of publicity and promo.

ikihealthplus:
A friend wants to invest heavily in xx millions of naira but I told him to hold on and do some research on its profitability and sustainability because big Giants like olx, jumia and Konga recorded losses last year due to a couple of factors. So friends in the house, I need your input so my friend doesn't invest ignorantly. Is it wise engaging in e-commerce in Nigeria? What are the challenges and can it be overcome? Mods..lalasticlala please bring this to front page

E-commerce is very profitable only if u understand how it works and wat makes it profitable. For now no company has been able to get it right. They are all struggling even tho they have huge capital or loans to work with. My uncle invested several millions(about 50m)into it and lost he had to close it after 3 year plus due to losses. U have to deal with bigger and maybe richer competitors like jumia, Konga even tho they are struggling bt they have access to big loans and have a customer base and network already


Don’t go into E commerce if u don’t have an EDGE and I’m not talking about money bt innovation, ideas, technical know how, logistic network, unique marketing strategies and Ur production or product source. If u don’t have all these details sorted out AHEAD pls don’t waste ur money.

Let him start with drop shipping first, and learn the ropes before going full scale

daprofo:



It's possible to make billions in ROI in less than two years in some e-commerce businesses. Call for one-on-one free consultancy.
08104194694

Scam Alert!!!

There's still a massive problem with infrastructures, cash society, fraud that is a burden for online retailers.

Jumia/Konga lose probably millions daily for customers who aren't at locations at the point of delivery. 2-3 redelivery attempts adds up to costs that customers don't charge for.

Issue of dishonest sellers/buyers. Buyers can hijack deliveries, fake notes, swap goods for return etc. Sellers can sell fake amongst other issues.

Exchange rates, data affects econmerce. If product is homegrown, you'll have no problem with the former.

Economy also affects your sales.

Hello! Thanks sleemzy96 for mentioning me on this post. Let me do a quick intro of myself; ikihealthplus,
Generally, I am into business development and entrepreneurship, I currently work with a team I spearheaded and was able to start and execute an agric groupbuy market that have the likes of premier lotto(Baba Ijebu) as customer. I have working experience across industries like real estate, ecommerce, delivery and logistics, web and technology, career development for individuals, educational architecture, and also in agriculture. I have passion in putting efforts and strategies to help people build their businesses and career. I am currently enrolled with startup school under YCombinator in the USA.
So noise apart, ecommerce is an awesome business but our problem here is we copy and paste everything we see the western market does with simulating it to work with our own environment.
Nonetheless, I have working models for ecommerce in Nigeria, tested and working; examples like group commerce, mobile commerce.
So, if your friend is serious about this, we can use the lean startup way to help/her test things out before burning money on things that will not work.
You can chat me up on 08050538839. I help businesses grow.

EXCELSMITH:
My friend owns https://every247.com
Mhen, that guy hasn't earn any shit since then, asked him and he said he made sales only seven times within the space of three years (3 years).
No Ads
Only Facebook, Instagram and Twitter Ads.

He doesn't know what he is doing. The store is very poor and has a lot of errors.
Front page for example says "the most cheapest goods"
Some other page is in a strange language. I wonder those that even bought from the store.

Tell him to go learn eccomerce.

EXCELSMITH:
My friend owns https://every247.com
Mhen, that guy hasn't earn any shit since then, asked him and he said he made sales only seven times within the space of three years (3 years).
No Ads
Only Facebook, Instagram and Twitter Ads.

I checked your friend's website and I saw a great website but very little Inventory.
There is very big room for improvement if he doesn't give up because I saw his ideas are very appealing.
DropOff.com.ng will be very happy to be his carrier partner. we are an hyperlocal last-mile delivery start-up and we can have an SLA with him quickly, my email address is (alphasapele@yahoo.com)
Lastly maybe he should go the billboards route for publicity.

ikihealthplus:
A friend wants to invest heavily in xx millions of naira but I told him to hold on and do some research on its profitability and sustainability because big Giants like olx, jumia and Konga recorded losses last year due to a couple of factors. So friends in the house, I need your input so my friend doesn't invest ignorantly. Is it wise engaging in e-commerce in Nigeria? What are the challenges and can it be overcome? Mods..lalasticlala please bring this to front page

The time for e commerce is gone. The internet is shifting.... he will struggle. likes of Alibaba and Bezos cashed in when ecommerce was the embryo stage. It wasn't making sense to many either. This is what big data and IoT is like now. He should look into IoT, VR, AR ideas, they will create millionaires over the next decade. The future of shopping is VR. imagine wearing a VR lens in your home and you are able to visit the shop floor of Shoprite or go the store of any e commerce store. Put simply a VR creates a real life experience

MimiShopping:
your friend should go and locate an existing small but promising ecommerce business to buy off or partner with on a legal agreement.

Mimi Nigeria (www.mimi.ng) welcomes prospective investors and serious partners as we target to expand into some key West African countries as part of our underground expansion.

Don't expect people to tell you the secrets of running a successful ecommerce business on an open forum like this...and mind u, most people that maybe giving u tips may never have owned or own ecommerce business before.

Like someone said rightfully again, if your friend is coming to do what others are doing already, it will be difficult for him to penetrate Nigerian market but if he is coming with something new and promising, then he has a chance.


Do you want to start bag reselling business without keeping stock Do you need bags at affordable price than u can get anywhere or on any other online store

Then visit Mimi Nigeria website and just click on the bag u want by browsing through the categories and any of our customer care staff will reply u immediately.

Mimi.ng, the home of affordable bags

DropOff Ltd will be thrilled to partner with Mimi Nigeria. we are a startup with a global vision in "last 100 feet logistics"
Logistical planning is too big of a challenge for a company to handle alone. outsourcing your strategy to a last-mile company means that you can focus on your core business of making sales. the Challenge of Logistics is difficult and needs to be handled by a dedicated player.

DropOff is a startup that aims to serve as the courier and last mile delivery company of choice for e-commerce companies, Brick-and-mortar retailers, SMEs and documents deliveries.

majekdom2:
The time for e commerce is gone. The internet is shifting.... he will struggle. likes of Alibaba and Bezos cashed in when ecommerce was the embryo stage. It wasn't making sense to many either. This is what big data and IoT is like now. He should look into IoT, VR, AR ideas, they will create millionaires over the next decade. The future of shopping is VR. imagine wearing a VR lens in your home and you are able to visit the shop floor of Shoprite or go the store of any e commerce store. Put simply a VR creates a real life experience

Man you spilled on a king's ransom idea.

Ecommerce is profitable with the right marketing strategies .... Get custom leather shoes shipped to your location 0818-166-3616

Yes. E-commerce is sustainable in Nigeria. It's a process. It is evolving and growing. With tine, it would be great.

Every business needs a website to compete favourably in this world of digital marketing.

See 10 VITAL REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD HAVE A WEBSITE FOR YOUR BUSINESS.

tiwiex:


This is really a good question the fellow asked. Jumia and Konga made heavy losses that have definitely been written off. We talking about 40 million dollars for Jumia alone. Google to see specific details but it's huge.

Like I told a client yesterday. The site is one thing and it's like 20% of the work. It is just a window view to the world for your business. You still have to get a back office. Like you rightly suggest, the back office has to be thin.

What exactly is OP selling? How do you handle your suppliers? Are you stocking and tying down cash? Is it a just in time (JIT) model that require little or no storage? I think we call that drop shipping now. How do you handle logistics? I think this is one area Nigeria falls short. Shipping is dependent on the country's existing transportation infrastructure. In the US for instance, the US postal service ships for Amazon. So Amazon really doesn't handle logistics.

Finally, what are you selling? If it's that important, people will buy ecommerce or not. I built an ecommerce for a friend. She sells weight loss products. She really didn't even need the site because she was already selling impressively. Infact, she rarely even remembers I built a site for her which really hurts my effort. But it just means the product is the most critical thing obviously. So think about this.

Marketing is key because you need awareness. She gets 80% of her customers through Instagram. So you have to check out all these issues. Are you a techy person and want to build the site yourself or a business man? Techy people and business and not usually clear on the business goals.

Finally, I think the ecommerce market in Nigeria is over exergerated. I can't remember the last time I shopped online. We think we have the volume to break even. This is how Jumia and Konga did themselves in. Maybe the volume is not that large but if you do your marketing right and do not invest heavily. You might be up to something. All the best.

Think about all these. The ecommerce site does not automatically lead to sales. The products and your awareness campaign does.

Wow, you just gave a succinct analysis of the whole scenario.

Indeed, when people say Nigeria has population, I chuckle because that population doesn't have high purchasing power. More than half the population of Nigeria's 200 million are northerners who are averse to technology. In fact, they can't even read and write save for Arabic. That's why agriculture still remains the most viable business for anybody to go into in Nigeria. Because no matter what, the old grandma in an Eastern village is always going to need palm oil to cook her ọgbọnọ soup.

Even many educated folks don't buy online in Nigeria due to trust issues. The few major gadgets I bought recently were all purchased offline. I just used jumia and Co to gauge the prices to be sure someone was not trying to cheat me.

qanda:
eCommerce is profitable and sustainable. However, there are alot of factors that needs to be in place to make a business successful. Some of these factors include:
-Inventory
-Pricing
-Advertising/Marketing
-Customer Care
-Delivery/Logistics
-Workforce
What is your friend planning to do differently from the existing eCommerce platforms? What product(s) his he planning to offer?

My advice: He should test the waters by selling on Social Media and existing eCommerce platforms (Jumia and Konga), depending on the results, he should go ahead or wait for the right time and put learnt lessons to use.

He should also get more knowledge about entrepreneurship and business. He can get FREE business resources on Q and A App.
Download Q and A App from Google Playstore

Exactly what I planned to comment. Best reply!

Guys pls help, ideas keep hitting my big head big time, and I don't know what to do.

I can give your friend an idea that will catapult to millions annually, but my challenge is how do I monetize my ideas. Especially partnering with a sponsor?

I need advices from you all. If someone had idea that is going to be very profitable, what should the person do?

If your friend can bring people who are creative enough into his team, he will succeed.

07030595653.