Online Shopping in Nigeria the Good, Bad and Ugly
Online shopping in Nigeria has come to stay just like it’s available in other parts of the world; every day growing number of Nigerians are going online for shopping – from computers, accessories, fashion, shoes, household equipments, babies tablet, child care products, toys, games to fitness products, and so on. These online shopping in Nigeria don’t happen without noticing some good, bad and ugly cases in the process. Today in this article, I will briefly enumerate and explain some of these factors.
The good sides of online shopping in Nigeria
More options: Nigerian online shopping industry is blessed with lots shopping websites from different categories of shopping sites, from classified sites like Africatopforum.com, online marketplaces like Konga, to online supermarket store like obymart.com. Each of this category of online shopping sites in Nigeria has thousands websites existing in them; with these, Nigerian online shoppers have many options to choose from.
Easy doing business: online shopping in Nigeria has made doing business in Nigeria faster and easier than it usually was. With online shopping in Nigeria, you can compare prices across multiple sellers online, have them show you products they have in stock and communicate with them till you get what you want.
Convenience: with online shopping in Nigeria, one can be in state in Nigeria and do business all over Nigeria, and buy from seller from any location in Nigeria. For example, you can buy from a seller in Anambra and get the products delivered at your doorstep in Lagos. You need not to carry cash around, just pay online and have your transactions processed and your goods delivered. You don’t have to leave the comfort of your home to buy and sell goods online, just laptop, desktop or phone, that is all, you’re ready to start transacting online.
The bad sides of online shopping in Nigeria
Transaction failure: transaction failure is a common bad thing that happens in online shopping in Nigeria. the transaction failures often can be either from a bank or an online shop owner. Sometimes, when this happens, you would do find out that money already has been deducted; while you will definitely get your money reversed or refunded, in some cases it many take days or you may go to bank to fill a form. All these defeat the purpose of online shopping in Nigeria, because people choose online shopping option to make buying easier.
Poor internet connection: the only way Nigerians can shop on worldwide web is through internet connections, poor internet connections are major issues Nigerian online shoppers are still facing today. While we have multiple ISP’s providers in Nigeria, no one is better than the other when it comes to internet browsing, because, my experience showed that each ISP’s internet connection browses faster in one location than the other. It appeared there is no one ISP that is good at all locations in Nigeria.
Low patronage: despite over 100 million of Nigerians being active online in Nigeria, the online buying patronage by Nigerians are still poor compare to number of Nigerians that are active online. Many Nigerians are yet to be convinced that buying things on the internet works; this hampers online store owners’ motivation to continue investing in their online shops in Nigeria, therefore, reducing online shops options Nigerians would have had. Although, growing number of Nigerian online store owners thought is enough to just have online shopping site, without promotion and Nigerians will notice it and start buying. To get traffics and buyers for online shopping requires a serious online marketing by hiring online advertising agency like AdHang.com to help plan, strategize and run online advertising in Nigeria for the online shop. A handful of online store owners in Nigeria do this by hiring digital marketing agencies in Nigeria. Many Nigerian online shopping stores that are doing well are aggressively and well marketed to these Nigerians who are using them, as a result, these Nigerian online shoppers know where they shop, when they want to shop online. So, if you are online store owner not getting enough buyers, or just starting out, you need to hire AdHang, a Nigeria’s online advertising agency to help you spread your tentacles all over Nigeria faster and easier, than you ever thought possible.
The ugly sides of online shopping in Nigeria
Delay in delivery: most times, there seems to be delays in delivery of products/goods to the buyers, either due to bad roads in Nigeria or unpreparedness of some online store owners. Imagining you ordered a breakfast, only for it to be delivered in the evening or not getting it at all. You can buy a product online and get it days late, etc. This is really ugly side of online shopping in Nigeria; the solution may be to plan and order ahead of the time/date.
Scammers: everybody must have been aware of scammers that operate online, whether you shop online in Nigeria or not you must have heard of people be scammed online. There’re many websites that are set up to scam people, some cloned popular online stores (phishing) making shoppers believe they are dealing with the real website not knowing they’re dealing with scammers. This is really an ugly side of online shopping in Nigeria. So it is advisable to be careful while shopping online anywhere, not just Nigeria, scammers exist worldwide.
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