Starting An E-commerce Business in Nigeria can be daunting and tasking for any newbie. In Africa, most people pay on delivery and sometimes they cancel at anytime.
Some E-commerce business agencies have lost millions just chasing people who showed interest and never turned up to collect the business they ordered, others start arguing on price of something they previously ordered online, a third set, simply switch of their mobile phones.
That said, starting an e-commerce business while very profitable comes with a myriad of challenges you must navigate and overcome if you’re going to be successful. There is a common among among E-commerce business owners that the business isn’t for the faint-hearted.
Let’s look at 6 things you know before starting an E-commerce business in Nigeria or any other African country.
1. You must understand your customer.
Ideal customer
Ideal Customer
“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else”.
–
SAM WALTON – TRAVIS BIGGERT
Understanding your customer is truly the gold of marketing and sales. If you can understand what makes your customer remove his hard-earned money and pay for a product or service, you have the key to selling anything on earth.
But when it comes to e-commerce in Nigeria however, understanding the customer helps you just as much as them. Customers can be very wonderful. After placing and confirming an order, on transit to the delivery point, the customer can simply switch off his mobile.
This has happened times without number, other time, on getting to the delivery point, the customer simply beings to negotiate on price. Understanding the customer helps you to develop the much needed patience and fortitude required to prosper in the E-commerce business in Nigeria.
2. You must understand the product
” Don’t find customers for your products. Find products for your customers.
–
SETH GODIN
Products
What does your product do for your customers? What are the angles you can use to market your products? Who would be attracted to images of your products? What different ways can you use your product? What are people already saying about your products?
Knowing your product inside out is one secret that will help you to be able to convince your customers in your sales pages and make them know why they must get that product and get it today.
The better you understand your product, the easier it would be to market it.
3. Your pricing
Pricing
Pricing is one of the most important things to take seriously when starting an e-commerce business. This is because it would determine whether you make profits, break even or losses.
You’re into business to make profits and you’ll easily run out of funds if you don’t replenish operational funds used.
Some things that affect pricing that you must consider include
• Advertising cost
• products cost
• delivery cost
• profit margin
• management expenses
Understanding all these would help you know how much your pricing should be.
Pricing will also help you determine what type of products to sell us some product you can actually sell 2X, 3X or 10X the original price, while others would only sell at 1.2X or 1.5X the price.
4. Choose The Location You Can Comfortably Cover
Location
Like everything else, Delivery within Nigeria has its troubles. Most startup E-commerce business do the same mistake of attempting to deliver nationwide without first understanding and putting in place systems to ensure efficiency.
This usually leads to undue stress on the business and the business person pulls out. In Nigeria some areas are not easily accessible and require a higher amount to reach. By attaching a fixed price to all products as delivery fee it might not be enough to cover for some specific areas. This definitely means you will start to run at a loss or money will be deducted from your profit.
When starting an e-commerce business in Nigeria, choose a suitable geographic area you can cover comfortably. This would definitely be less stressful and would help you understand the profitability of the business before attempting to scale.
5. Choose a singular role – outsource the rest.
Choose a singular role
A big mistake most e-commerce business persons do is trying to do everything by themselves and get all the profits. This is the surest way to lose the business.
Trying to do everything yourself with where you can and the purpose of doing the business becomes defeated.
The best thing to do is to divide your business into functional parts and understand the number one rule you should play in your business for you to be profitable and for the business to continue and outsource every other thing.
You could decide to manage a business and outsource call the other component parts such as delivery, product sourcing, packaging, and advertising. Doing this enables you to stay longer, endure less stress and effectively run and manage the business.
Never attempt to do every part of a business by yourself.
PS if you are looking for an e-commerce expert to help you run Facebook or Google ad, I’d recommend Sean B Samy
6. Learn directly from The Experts
Learn from experts in the industry.
Most people wake up and decide to go into a coma without any prior training or understanding the perks of the business. This is one surefire way of losing money.
When attempting to go into an e-commerce business in Nigeria and show you learn from an expert or someone who has been there and been successful. Like a mentor once told me “there are some things you can never learn on Google”.
Learn from experts, buy trainings and YouTube. The more actionable, practical knowledge you have, the less mistakes you make.
Click here to learn more about starting a profitable E-commerce business in Nigeria.
Now that you know exactly what to do to start your e-commerce business I wish you great success.
What has been your down experience in e-commerce. Kindly tell us in the comments section. We are dying to hear from you.
When most folk hear e-commerce, they mostly think about selling of goods like a regular shop, but online. Most times they even wonder, is e-commerce profitable? If you’re one of these people, then this post is an answer to your burning questions.
In this post we are not only going to tell you just how profitable e-commerce really is, we are also going to show you how to get started and profit in the Nigerian market.
What is e-commerce?
With so many models and modifications out there, it’s easy to loose the meaning. But e-commerce in general simply means the selling and buying of products online without the need of a physical meeting point.
Simply put, anytime you sell or buy something online, you are participating in electronic commerce, or e-commerce for short.
There are lots of variations of this e-commerce model, including dropshiping, Fulfilment by Amazon, white labeling and so on. In the African market, with special emphasis on Nigeria, there are basically two types that are very common.
The first is self hosted e-commerce by big house hold names like Konga, Jumia, Alibaba and the likes. Here these big names imports and hosts the products as well as sell them and cover payments on the platform. A single platform does the hosting, advertising sales and delivery all by one single company.
The second model is done by e-commerce vendors and this is the one you will be interested in as a newbie. Here you search for her to get products and store them for the time being while advertising using a different platform and delivering your products to buyers with a pay-on-delivery system.
So let’s get into the basics of e-commerce and how you can get started.
1. Research
The very first step is to make adequate research. One of the reasons why a lot of businesses fail is due to inadequate massage or using secondhand information. Some business owners simply ask other people who have no first-hand experience in a particular industry for advice and run with it. You absolutely should not do this.
Instead you should carry out adequate research to find out what e-commerce model best suits your region. You should also figure out how present e-commerce businesses which are operating are able to carry out operations with minimal hindrances.
You should also figure out what niche/ industry you wants to go into because you cannot focus on more than one niche at a time when you are just starting out that will simply lead to massive failure and waste of funds. Then figure out how to source your products and get them cheaper as well as get them delivered to you. Also you have to consider where to store them to avoid damage.
Lastly you need to figure out what advertising platform to use for example, some products are better advertised using Google, while some regions are better assessed by Facebook than Google. For some products such as adult toys, you would make a better return on investment advertising on adult websites.
That said you must also make research on how to advertise effectively so as to spend the lowest amount and get as high as possible conversions, how to get your products delivered to your customers effectively as over 35% of customers will simply cancel an order if they are delivery problems.
After researching and determining all these it’s time to go into the next step.
2. Set up your E-commerce business Funnel
Okay you’ve made your research and now it’s time to go practical. The very first thing to do is to get your products delivered to you. From the research you have made you can simply reach out through your supplier and have them delivered the products to you.
While your products are been delivered the next step is to contact an advertising agency to set up your Facebook account your Shopify store or your website. Setting up your website on Shopify store requires some basic knowledge in web design. This is something you could also do by yourself if you get this course.
While these are going on you should also get in touch with your delivery agent and set up an agreement. You should ensure that your delivery agent covers all the regions you want and gives a flat price so you have the liberty of including a delivery free or giving an offer such as free delivery.
It’s also important you have basic knowledge about how your Funnel works. Your funnel is a process customer steaks from seeing your advert to making a purchase and getting their products delivered. Having basic knowledge about your phone now will help you know when there are problems with your business and what part needs some fixing.
3. Getting customers
Now that you have set up your account for now it’s time to get customers to see your products and if all goes well make purchases.
With the right creatives and sales funnel your ads is start producing orders within 48 hours, during this period you should not touch or make adjustments to your heart especially when using platforms like Facebook and Google. This is because the algorithms take time to learn who are the best customers for your business.
If after 48 hours however you are yet to make orders in sufficient quantity then it’s time to pause your ads and look into your Funnel to figure out where the problem is coming from.
Here are three cases in which you should post your ADS and make some edits.
1. You are getting very few website visits – often times when this happens, you will be getting very high cost per click and very little engagement on your ads. This simply means your ad copies underperforming and not engaging the right people or your target audience was wrong.
In this case what you should simply do is ensure you have the right target audience and change the creatives you are using.
However when you get this course you will limit your chances of wasting money on a bad creative and using templates that actually work check it out here ( I get a commission when you buy a product).
2. You have lots of website visits but very few orders – Great, this means your creatives are doing very well and you did a good job at your audience targeting however your sales copy sucks.
Your sales copy isn’t convincing enough for people to remove money from their pockets and make a payment. It could be that you are not painting the right picture for them or your offer isn’t tempting enough. If that is the case you can seek help from a professional copywriter.
3. Lastly, orders are being made but lots of people don’t complete payment – If you’re using the pay-on-delivery system as it’s more commonly used in Africa for newbie E-commerce Business, then the problem will most likely lie in your delivery time.
The shorter your delivery time the less probability of potential buyers changing their minds. Your aim at this point should be to shorten your delivery time to under 48 hours.
How much can you make from e-commerce
Now that you have understood the basics of setting up an e-commerce business in Nigeria and your e-commerce business is set to run here is an idea of how much can be made from e-commerce.
Everyday people buy things online and that is only increasing. According to the International Trade Association $12 billion is currently spent in the e-commerce industry as of 2021 and that figure is projected to increase to $75 billion by 2025.
So again how much can you make from e-commerce? Well a portion of $12 billion isn’t bad right? All you really need is a kickass product and a working sales funnel and you’re definitely in a business that will keep you smiling to the bank.
Of course there are pitfalls you must avoid and it takes some learning, so that’s why I recommend this course by Jonathan Melody, Nigeria’s number 1 E-commerce mogul. You’ll definitely learn some hidden secrets to the game.
Want to learn about the Best e-commerce platforms in Nigeria for 2022? Check here
Looking for the best e-commerce product niches for 2022. We got you covered. Check here.
Ecommerce is one of the most profitable businesses you can do in Nigeria. This is because people keep buying things day-in and day out, as long as you get into the profitable E-commerce niches.
If you’re looking to get into e-commerce, knowing the profitable niches can be daunting and that’s why this post was created to guide you towards 5 profitable niches for your e-commerce business.
But before I tell you, you should know why it’s important to niche down. Without so many E-commerce businesses out there, trying to compete with brands like Amazon and Jiji will just fail out flat. These guys have billions of USD backing them and you cannot get close.
This is why you must carve out a smaller space in the market where you have less competition and can dominate that area and make the most profits. This area is called your niche.
Now that you know why you should niche down, here are 5 niches you should look into in 2022.
Let’s go
1. Tech Products
The Tech Products industry is a highly profitable niche in Nigeria and indeed Africa because people love to get the latest gadgets and keep up to date with technology and its inventions.
tech products
With the ever-changing world of technology, new gadgets with mind-blowing features are released daily and people want to own these gadgets that make their lives easier.
Some common gadgets that Nigerians buy are smartwatches, smartphones, tablets, etc. Nigerians love staying up to date with technology and most of them change their phone and other devices regularly irrespective of whether they are still functioning or not.
Delving into this niche is a sure game-changer. Before going in tho, you should figure out your suppliers and locate where you can get these gadgets at amazing prices and resell them for a good profit.
Another tip is to avoid selling gadgets that can easily be bought in the market. Else it won’t fly. Source for new gadgets that haven’t yet penetrated the market and sell them at awesome proves.
2. Kitchen Niche
kitchen gadgets
Another hot niche is the kitchen Niche. It’s not news that Nigerians love cooking and making different meals. Some of the toes of people who need kitchen utensils are;
The total beginner: a young person who’s just starting life on their own. These people need quality utensils that won’t make them break the bank. If you’ve ever had to move out of your parent’s house, you’ll quickly understand that getting your house filled up is hard work. These people need affordable but quality sets of knives, blenders, chopping boards, microwaves, toaster ovens, coffee makers, etc. Every day thousands of new youngsters move out to get their own place.
Home Chefs & Food Networks: These are the best guys in the food industry and usually have the latest equipment in cutlery and cooking. These guys buy new equipment to test or speed up the process of making meals. They make up a big part of the kitchen niche. Chefs usually buy high-ticket products and are extremely selective when it comes to the equipment they use. They know the fine details of each piece of equipment in their kitchen.
Other sets of people include Restaurants, newlyweds, and collectors. With new daily innovations in the kitchen niche, it’s another profitable E-commerce niche to bite.
3. Beauty Products.
You cannot mention E-commerce and not touch beauty products. Everyone wants to look more sexy and glamorous these days and it’s a good thing because you can make a lot of money in this niche.
beauty niche products
Every day, new creams, powders, formulas, and gadgets are being produced in this niche to increase beauty. These include skin tinning creams, spot removal gadgets, make-up kits, anti-aging formulas, and the likes, and this targets both genders.
According to Yieldify, the global cosmetic makeup market is worth over USD 90B and Influencer marketing Hub states that the revenue from the beauty industry is up to $511B compared to $483B. It’s definitely on the increase and you should set your sights on this niche.
However, it’s a highly competitive niche and you should be careful not to try to serve too many products. Instead, pick one product that works best for a sub-niche and go all in. That way there is less competition and you can command higher prices.
4. Marriage & Relationships gadgets
The marriage and relationship niche is really more of an industry than a niche. It’s quite wide and has a lot of sub-niches.
From adult play toys such as finger vibrators, strap-ons, dildos, nipple clips, and the likes to more family-like gadgets like mobile car trackers for people who wish to track their partner movements or track their driver’s movements with their vehicles.
sex products
While running some of these products using Facebook or Google ads will require some verification from these platforms, this niche is highly profitable.
Another sub-niche in this e-commerce market is enhancement pills and supplements. These have been proven time without number to be a best seller. We all want to enjoy better sex and satisfy ourselves and our partners.
Sex sells and in our time when everyone is trying to gain maximum pleasure, you cannot afford to ignore this market. According to Grand View Research, the global sex industry including enhancements was valued at $33.6B in 2020 and it’s growing at a rate of 8.4%.
5. Health and Fitness
We rank this the most profitable niche in the E-commerce industry. Why? Simply because every day, millions of health products are being sold globally.
Health Niche is booming
From local herbs to supplements to fitness equipment, people are becoming more conscious about their health and finding ways, oftentimes outside organized medicine to cure illnesses and attain long healthy lives.
According to statista.com total global dietary market size will be 308 billion US dollars by 2028, while the health and fitness global market share was about $96B as of 2019.
Our ever-increasing population, overpopulated cities, toxic chemicals released into the atmosphere and other dangers means people will continue to seek both medical and traditional ways of staying fit and healthy.
Some sub-niches in this market include belly fat removal herbs & gadgets, gym equipment & clothing, health and heart rate monitoring devices e.g smartwatches, local supplements, and teas for treating illnesses like fibroids, cancer e.t.c.
These are not medically approved and in most cases, you’ll need to get approval from Facebook and Google to avoid being banned. You should also avoid making general promises as well as using before and after pictures.
Before going in though, ensure you get a product with enough positive feedback that you can easily lay your hands on.
The future of e-commerce is untapped to say the least as the e-commerce industry is still growing and in its developmental stages. In this post we would talk about 10 E-commerce trends and how you can take advantage of them..
This one is simple, as the world gets faster and more people are adopting digital trends, we are expecting to see a rise in digital purchases for just about everything.
Over the last few years we have seen different strategies come and go, and new innovations to help drive sales being implemented. We have also seen the rise of platforms like eBay, Alibaba, Jumia, E-commerce enabling platforms like Shopify and the use of social media platforms e.g Facebook, TikTok, etc, and the use of contact platforms such as WhatsApp marketing and email marketing.
It’s fair to say E-commerce has drastically evolved over the last 10 years and we can only be sure of one thing; that there is more to come. Therefore, looking at the past changes and trying to predict the market, here are 10 trends that will affect the E-commerce market in the next 5 years which are already happening in 2022.
1. More online purchases
From buying everyday items like food to signing deeds of purchases for luxury items like lands, housing and automobiles; there would be exponential increase in the numbers of people adopting online purchases. In 2021 it was estimated that approximately 2.15 billion people shopped online.
Source : Haffkine Institute
Consequently, businesses who do not have an online presence will start to suffer and this is why we recommend putting your business on google and optimising your online presence to prepare you and your business for the e-commerce opportunities that will be emerging.
Learning how to sell online, including running Facebook ads and Google ads will be an asset and a highly sought after skill that if done effectively will bring in lots of sales. As a Facebook ads agency, you’ll likely see a surge in demand for your services. Learning how to position and distinguish yourself at the top will mean the difference between easing high (7 -figures) and earning meager fees for your services.
Let’s move on.
2. People will look for cheaper products online
Yes, more and more people will look for cheaper ways to get a product online. So what does this trend mean?
Well, let’s start with those who do not have their business online yet. Like I stated earlier, if your business isn’t online, you are being replaced – and fast. Since most people will be looking for a way to buy things cheaper online, and they’ll get them cheaper, operating just a physical store with no optimised online presence will be costly and ultimately unproductive.
Now, does this mean you should make your products cheaper? Heck no, you should increase your price if you are properly positioned. People don’t want to be treated like they are poor and certainly not online shoppers, but they want to know they are getting a good bargain.
3. More business will sell online than offline
Source: Brainmine web solutions
This is a no brainer. Alot more businesses are going to choose selling online because of its numerous advantages such as low storage space required, no need to hire staff, just to name a few.
This means at least 3X more profit and less expenditure. With more businesses going online, learning to sell will be of emmerse value to the smart entrepreneur. It would also mean those businesses with online and offline presencess will sell twice as much. Another opportunity to double your income as an entrepreneur.
But the best part of this remains the ease of doing business. Before the advent of E-commerce, you’d have to gather enough money, buy equipment and rent a space, register with the appropriate authorities way before you start your business. Today all you need is a smartphone to connect you with your customers.
Click here to learn more of the advantages of selling online
4. AI will help platforms, business learn more about shoppers leading to tailored experience
Platforms such as Shopify, Google, Facebook, TikTok all learn from user data using artificial intelligence systems and this means they are able to serve customers tailored ads that best match their interests. With Facebook for instance, the Facebook’s algorithm is able to identify a user’s interest after only 3 visits to specific pages.
This means smart advertisers will be able to reach the right audiences with the right messages while spending less. Smart advertisers can take advantage of this by utilising keywords their customers use often and targeting those keywords in their messages. As AI improves so does its ability to find the right customer and interact better with humans.
Platforms like Facebook and TikTok rely heavily on AI for matching the right message to the right person, however its still in its early stages and requires the input of a smarts advertiser to achieve its goals.
Learn more about how AI can help your business here.
5. More people will opt in for non traditional payment systems
According to Financer Worldwide, we would witness a 13.7% growth in the adoption of digital payments between 2021 and 2026. For online marketers this is pretty juicy news.
Source : factorHR
In most African countries some people are still not comfortable with online payments and payment on delivery is still the norm with special emphasis on small businesses. Big brands however like Alibaba, Jumia do not seem to face this trust problem.
For small businesses however this is a major problem. In European countries and the USA, this is less of a problem as most people already buy almost everything online and use credit and debit cards.
However, newer methods of payment such as using gift cards, cryptocurrencies, PayPal, Google pay and the host of them will continue to get more integrated into our everyday commercial activities.
A simple way to cash in this trend is to offer multiple payment options to your customers. These are relatively easy to setup and most of them do not require any technical expertise.
6. Product videos will drive lower CPMs and higher engagement
One of the nightmares with advertising is high cost per impressions (CPM) and low engagement. However videos have shown to consistently produce more engagement and therefore lower cost per thousand impression.
Using videos that show the products in action or product unboxing tend to drive more engagement as they interrupt the endless scrolling pattern and get the customer to engage.
Generally speaking videos will drive cheaper engagement than using photos therefore when advertising anything you should focus more on using videos of products, events, just about anything.
7. Subscription products / strategies will drive more sales
As a business, finding ways to make your products subscription based will drive more sales that one time products. A perfect example of this is the iPhone.
Creating upgradeable products that require the customer to make repeat purchases will definitely drive more sales as you’ll be spending less to acquire budget on acquiring new customers. This simply means the average lifetime value of a customer will be alot more.
This doesn’t work for only subscription products, as a business person, you could still achieve this by using email marketing and selling complimentary products. For example, a person who buys a juice mixer is 10 times more likely to buy a fruit peeler. Since we are still in the kitchen niche, that person is still very likely to buy a blender, a fridge, set of pots, frying pans and the list goes on.
Source : Michael Giannulis
This is one you should definitely not ignore if you want to make the big bucks with e-commerce.
8. Cost of advertising will continue to rise
You definitely don’t want to hear this one, but it’s not going away. As long as the cost of living continues to rise, just about everything else in life will continue to rise and advertising costs are not left out.
It would cost more and more to reach more people and it would take a smart advertiser to understand and apply the message with the best potential of engaging and stirring people to take desirable actions at the lowest possible cost.
Source : Rojgar Aur Nirman
This would involve using videos with benefit/fear based messages that are sure to break attention patterns and generate engagement. What you want to achieve is creating ads that generate alot of likes, comments and shares especially when using social network platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
Figuring out ways to keep your advertising cost down while reaching a good number of people is fast becoming a trend and I recommend you learn more about how to advertise with more success for less on Facebook.
9. CRM systems, Lead generation strategies will continue to bring in more high ticket sales
As discussed earlier, cost of advertising will continue to rise and a smart advertiser must find ways to keep cost down. One of such ways is using Customer Relationship Management systems and Lead generation strategies.
PerfectView CRM online
Having a credible and efficient CRM system will ensure that you spend less to get and keep customers, enabling them make repeat purchases. This increases the lifetime value of a customer by several folds.
Using lead generation strategies will make advertising even cheaper, however it’s a long time strategy, but one that will pay off 10X more than just trying to make the sale today. Some lead generation strategies to implement include email marketing and WhatsApp marketing.
These two , CRM systems and Lead generation, especially when combined will be more useful in selling high ticket products that require a good deal of trust and longer time for the customer to make up his or her mind. It’s like building your own advertising platform where you can reach your customer anytime.
Learn more about CRM systems and Lead generation strategies here .
10. Competition will get fiercer
Source: QuestionPro
This goes without saying but, I’ll say it anyways, your competition will simply get fiercer. Even though it would be easier to do business, this very reason will make business competitive. As more and more people start to do business online, you’ll be having to spend more and get creative to reach acquire and keep more customers.
Smart advertisers will therefore try to figure out ways to outsmart the competition without having to reduce prices or spend too much on advertising. One good way to achieve this is via niching down.
By selecting one really good niche and dominating it, you become an authority name in that industry leading to easier trust from potential customers and therefore more sales at higher prices.
Summary
So there you have it. My top 10 future trends for e-commerce that are already happening in 2022. I’ve also shared with you simple strategies to position yourself for these changes.
If you advertise with Facebook, this course is highly recommended for you if you’d want to make lots of sales.
