₦airaland Forum

My involvement in online business started before the internet was freely available; in South Africa twenty years ago I used to look through an advert-only newspaper that they used to give out for free, and from there I made several purchases.

I might have opened the first such business in Nigeria but as always, I was too ahead of my time and got no support. Moreover I was quite engaged in the job that took me to South Africa for training. Till this day I am still engaged in online trade, buying online from abroad and selling in Nigeria. There used to be Tradestable, and then Jiji and later OLX which seemed to be the best until it magically vanished and we hear it was swallowed up by jiji. There was yet one called Olist but that is the one from which somebody swindled me of ₦84,000 by false transfer; I don't know if it still exists.

Long story short, as it stands now it seems Jiji is now a monopoly and have become fat and lazy and greedy. No one can ever hope to sell any small item without paying them and small businesses like ours gave to cough up a minimum ₦18,000 whether we sell anything or not. There were 2 months last year I paid (then 15k) without selling a thing, when I had over 70 items on offer. My experience with them is now totally catastrophic. There was this one Fatcat that just stole my ₦4,000 subscription in exchange for constantly giving me annoying emails that 1 million people have viewed my adverts without me hearing from any.

Are there any alternatives to Jiji? It is WE the sellers that can create an alternative and boost competition. Can't we take our advert monies elsewhere and deliberately defund Jiji and cut them to size? The likes of Jumia and Konga say it is brand new items they want. Please SELLERS, share your experiences. I don't wish buyers to participate because they are the problem: they're looking for free items and will never accept an item is beyond their reach; instead they believe they will use "sense" to get it from seller (I must price it by force) and they NEVER read advert and comply in this Nigeria. If you are steadfast in your procedure, they rush to where Jiji has given them to leave a Feedback, destroying your name and others just follow the first person's lead. As I said in the beginning, I have more experience in online commerce than almost anyone participating in Nigeria.

Let us come together and do something. For me, after my 18k is exhausted, I'm moving on from Jiji to Facebook general marketplace, pending when I'm able to find someone to do my Instagram and Facebook page promotion. My merchandise is worth a few million and is primarily in hi-tech gadgets like phones and photographic equipment -- just so you get an idea the level of my involvement. How is it with the rest of you? Serious matter

That was how I woke up to Jiji refusing to allow me post phones for sale anymore because I have constantly refused to buy their subscription plans.

I have also began actively using Facebook marketplace to sell my phones. Jiji has become so greedy and unfriendly platform for sellers.
All they want to do is milk every penny from sellers.
It's because I lack funds to do Facebook/Instagram Ads, if not...Bleep Jiji

Now, I have gotten the funds to run Facebook Ads by myself since I'm already a Facebook Ads Specialist with 3 years experience. If I can run Real estate ads and get 6 quality leads on Facebook for a client, and also got sales for a few clients sometime ago, then why not do it for myself for my own business?
So, OP...I have given up on Jiji already. If dem like, make dem kuku close the account sef.

I am going to run my Facebook Ads by myself which is a guarantee for me.

Jiji will go down sooner or later. As a platform, you don't go all out to remove the option of a freemium option for people who just wants to list an item periodically when the need arises. Even if that is what you want to do you don't ask me to pay to list and my listing cannot be renewed without payment (even if you don't pay google you still appear on search results o!). People will gradually leave your platform starting with private sellers like us since we form the greater number that provide real bargain prices.

Also, the obsession with paid advertisers has lead to jiji overlooking scam ads who gladly pay the fee charged by jiji and jiji inturn ;looks the other way even when the sellers are reported (am talking from personal experience) eventually when enough bargain hunters fall victim buyers will gradually leave and sellers who no longer get buyers will also leave and in the end jiji will become a site for scam sellers who are willing to pay the fee which is small for them if they eventually get a victim.

People are already looking at alternatives and eventually, like other platforms who messed up in one way or another, jiji will collapse and become a ghost site.

This is the reason for my thread. Where is the alternative? I mentioned Fatcat that I tried with no success. No regrets because I only lost ₦4,000 compared to Jiji ₦18,000 and though no one bought anything from me, no one contacted me to insult and frustrate me either as is the normal case on Jiji, with no purchases either.

We need to see it there's a viable alternative in the Jiji mold as there used to be (Tradestable, Olx, etc). It's not enough to declare people will leave Jiji. I have already left; where do we go? It's not where sellers can go, but where sellers AND BUYERS will go and meet up. For now, Jiji still seems to be the monopoly

Dwightventures:
This is the reason for my thread. Where is the alternative? I mentioned Fatcat that I tried with no success. No regrets because I only lost ₦4,000 compared to Jiji ₦18,000 and though no one bought anything from me, no one contacted me to insult and frustrate me either as is the normal case on Jiji, with no purchases either.

We need to see it there's a viable alternative in the Jiji mold as there used to be (Tradestable, Olx, etc). It's not enough to declare people will leave Jiji. I have already left; where do we go? It's not where sellers can go, but where sellers AND BUYERS will go and meet up. For now, Jiji still seems to be the monopoly

Having same issues with them too!
All they are after now is paid ads.
They don't care whether u make sales or not.

Doing business in nigeria is not easy oh. I dont blame jiji, if they dont collect money how would they pay staff


Op i run Facebook ads its better than jiji ×1000

Just learn fb ads

IMO01:
Doing business in nigeria is not easy oh. I dont blame jiji, if they dont collect money how would they pay staff


Op i run Facebook ads its better than jiji ×1000

Just learn fb ads

Time was when I was looking for that for Instagram; now I can't afford it.

On Jiji, yea, I would like to have a big office with many staff, but I can't afford it, so I live according to my means. I can see that's a very big challenge for most Nigerians