Online stores in Nigeria record over $2 million worth of transactions per week, approximately N1.3 billion per month, from about 38 percent of Nigerians that prefer to buy items through online, according to nationwide survey conducted by Phillip Consulting, a business and management consulting company.
According to the survey, top items often purchased through online stores include fashion products, mobile phones and services, including restaurants and spa deals.
The findings show that items being returned to the online stores are an infrequent occurrence. “Presently, no more than 20 monthlypercent of delivered items are returned to the seller”.
Phillips Consulting said in the survey report that online merchants most often make use of their own delivery facilities and staff to convey items to customers, however, “external couriers such as DHL, UPS and Fedex are sometimes used for out-of-state deliveries”.
From retailers’ perspective, the success critical factors in the industry include a nationwide delivery system, value for money, a wide variety of products and services and consistency. It also reports that some of the biggest challenges faced by online retailers include poor customer service culture, city navigation and logistical issues and under-stocked items.
Though online stores have evolved over the years but many Nigerians are yet to embrace the culture of online shopping, it said. “The larger proportion of our respondents, 62 percent, still prefers to shop through traditional retail channels such as open markets, supermarkets, street shops and malls. Most of those who say they prefer to shop online still continue to shop using these traditional channels,” the report said.
Among the top favourite online stores, Jumia, owned by the German e-commerce company, Rocket Internet, and telecommunications companies, Millicom and MTN, is reported to be more favoured scoring 38 percent as the most favoured; Konga scored 25 percent while DealDey scored 15 percent. OLX scored 10 percent, Kaymu.com scored 3 percent while others shared
Online stores in Nigeria record over $2 million worth of transactions per week, approximately N1.3 billion per month, from about 38 percent of Nigerians that prefer to buy items through online, according to nationwide survey conducted by Phillip Consulting, a business and management consulting company.
According to the survey, top items often purchased through online stores include fashion products, mobile phones and services, including restaurants and spa deals.
The findings show that items being returned to the online stores are an infrequent occurrence. “Presently, no more than 20 9 percent.
The report said despite the increasing depth of internet penetration in Nigeria, users do not appear to use it exhaustively for online shopping. “Although, the latter’s emergence in the country is fairly recent, steps need to be taken to provide Nigerians with an understanding, acceptance and utilisation of the platform. Likewise, efforts by complementary sectors of the economy should be made in conjunction with online retailers to change the mindset of non-users and encourage online retail.”
According to a recent survey, the local online shopping sector grew from N49.9 billion to N62.4 billion between 2010 and 2011, and from N62.4 billion to N78 billion between 2011 and 2012, the report said.
