Let’s face the fact- we, human beings love shopping. Everybody enjoys new kinds of stuff - from shiny new shoes to the latest sophisticated gadgets.

Who wouldn’t like an upgrade from iPhone 7 to iPhone X? Or who wouldn’t want to wear that new design everyone's talking about?

E-commerce has evolved over the years globally, meeting people’s need effectively and efficiently. In the US and Europe, e-commerce is thriving and plays an important role in everyday life. However, this isn’t the case in Nigeria and most parts of Africa. These are the reasons why:

https://www.metrovillazone.com.ng/2018/02/5-reasons-why-e-commerce-is-not.html

1. Low internet Penetration and network unavailability

This is a major problem all over Africa. Internet penetration isn’t at a stage that will favour e-commerce. Also, internet connection isn’t always available due to several reasons. How would you order for those hot pants on Jumia if you can’t even access the internet? This is killing business. For everybody.

2. Trust issues with Nigerians

There’s this thing among Africans- we don’t have the courage to trust each other, let alone internet companies. There’s a scepticism among online shoppers. Most people would hardly offer to pay for goods up front. We often opt to Pay on Delivery, and then send the messenger back, with one excuse or the other.

Apart from this, a larger percentage of Nigerians don’t trust e-commerce firms to deliver the goods they promised online. A beautiful red robe, when delivered could look like an ugly red apron, and this damages the trust between consumer and e-commerce firms, hindering the business from flourishing as it should.

3. Low Purchasing Power

Times are hard and the masses are complaining. The purchasing power of the average African man is low when compared with his American counterpart. The income of the average Nigerian doesn’t allow much allocation for shopping, either physical or online.

A hungry man doesn’t look for money to shop online, his primary objective is to quench his hunger. Shopping will come afterwards- if there’s enough money left.

4. Unfavorable Business Climate/Government Regulations

It’s not easy to establish or run a business in Nigeria, and the World Bank can attest to this. According to Tony Elumelu (CEO, Heirs Holdings, Transcorp, UBA, etc) Nigerian laws are too stringent for businesses to run smoothly.

There’s an enormous amount of trouble (and bureaucracies) to face when trying to register a business in Nigeria, and once that’s done, there’s a huge amount of tax to pay too.

Apart from these, the cost of running a business in Nigeria is unusually high. Expensive power and transportation costs have negative impacts on e-commerce businesses, making business hard and tardy.

5. Poor Infrastructure

Nigeria still lacks adequate infrastructure to ensure timely delivery of ordered packages. You could order for the latest Tecno tablet and longer than the stipulated time for it to arrive. At the moment delivery is efficient only in select places in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.

Until these issues are addressed, e-commerce won’t thrive in Nigeria or Africa as it should. It will require a considerable amount of cooperation between stakeholders, government and Nigerians for the business to flourish.

More; https://www.metrovillazone.com.ng/search/label/Technology

MetroVillaZone:
5. Poor Infrastructure

Nigeria still lacks adequate infrastructure to ensure timely delivery of ordered packages. You could order for the latest Tecno tablet and longer than the stipulated time for it to arrive. At the moment delivery is efficient only in select places in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.

Until these issues are addressed, e-commerce won’t thrive in Nigeria or Africa as it should. It will require a considerable amount of cooperation between stakeholders, government and Nigerians for the business to flourish.

and so what? who cares?? am going into ecommerce as soon as possible. tell me what you gained with this your post now? you killed some people's dreams with it. congratulations. if you ned topics to write about, i can give you topics. dont come and be taking from people ok. add to them. e-commerce is the next big thing in Nigeria. i will write an article on that soon because of you.

ChieduJoshua081:

you killed some people's dreams with it. congratulations. i will write an article on that soon because of you.

This topic wasn't meant to kill anyone's dreams, rather it just highlighted the issues facing e-commerce in Nigeria.

E-commerce is the next big thing, I encourage E-entrepreneurs to invest massively.

MetroVillaZone:


This topic wasn't meant to kill anyone's dreams, rather it just highlighted the issues facing e-commerce in Nigeria.

E-commerce is the next big thing, I encourage E-entrepreneurs to invest massively.

Electronic commerce short formed E-commerce as the name implies involves commercial activities done in an electronic way. the electroniic is talking about the internet while the commerce is talking about buying and selling as in commercial activities. it is therfore buying and selling of goods and services through the internet.
in E-commerce, accessibility to the internet is a factor that is most important to its operation because if one is not on the internet, there is no how he/she can buy goods or services. this problem of internet accessibility has been conquered in Nigeria by various service providers that offer data for internet connection at very cheap rates. Examples of these are MTN, GLO, Airtel, Etisalat.

Furthermore, E-commerce enterprises are now looking for ways to provide free connections to their websites by planting ntwork mass in various locations to allow people from that location access to their site in order to be able to buy and with this customer can then only have to worry about the cost of goods and services.

Trust issues is another factor that must be considered by any potential customer. In Nigeria, as a customer going online to an E-commerce site to buy something, the first thing that comes to the mind is "do i have to pay first before i get what i have ordered?" OR "do i get to see my order and examine it before paying?", or the other way "what if after i make the payment i don't get my order?", "what if i don't like what i was supplied?"

All these are questions customers ask before making advancement to buy. They want to get the assurance that they would get exactly what they have ordered for. They want to examine it before paying.

All these are the reasons why many E-commerce sites have come up with the pay on delivery service where customers get to go to certain places of deliveries to see what they have ordered for before paying. This has cleared all doubt the customer might have.

For many years, in Nigeria people have been engaging in the stress of traveling to various market destinations to buy goods when they can actually sit at home and do some quick clicks and get their goods delivered to their door steps in one piece. E-commerce is the next big thing in Nigeria and it will go from accesorries, electronics, books, clothing to lands, houses, food items and even groceries.

Delivery
People are also concerned about the timee it takes to get the orders delivered. This can also be adjusted by giiving room for customers to choose the priority level of the order. They can be allowed to choose from options of high (2-3days), medium (4-5days), and low (1week) and with this the customer no longer has to worry about delay.

God bless Nigerian Entrepreneurs

MetroVillaZone:


This topic wasn't meant to kill anyone's dreams, rather it just highlighted the issues facing e-commerce in Nigeria.

E-commerce is the next big thing, I encourage E-entrepreneurs to invest massively.

Thank you for you. God bless you