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Shopping online in Nigeria could really be an annoying experience sometimes, as there is a widening gap between what customers are expecting and what online retailers are providing.
If you ever shop online in Nigeria, you have probably experienced this: reaching the checkout screen after choosing your perfect 100k items, only to find that shipping costs almost as much.
Shipping is one of the most annoying things about shopping online in Nigeria. It is a frustrating experience, and with growing concerns, retailers urgently need to up their game, because customers are now changing how they need to be served, customers would just visit top online stores to see top products listing, and go to where they can get better deals.
Dressmeoutlet boss lady, Ms. Olatorera Oniru lamented this development at NITEC 2017, saying customers abandon carts as soon as they find out that shipping cost is too expensive.
“There are tools we use at our backend for us to know about our abandoned cart rates, as customers sometimes would rapidly check out and found out that, for instance, shipping is too expensively; so, they are gone!” she said.
Nigerian online stores need to offer better and more flexible delivery options to compete with global practices.
Most times, online retailers would add some free shopping vouchers, which most probably, are fixed into the price of servicing shipping or the products themselves. There should be no need for free shopping vouchers when the cost is fixed on products! Customers want transparency over how much shipping actually cost.
Another challenge that has to do with shipping is bad shipping experience. Most people shop online to save them the time. Fixing delivery hours on customers working hours is not advised. With so many customers having to work 8 am to 4 pm, they need control over delivery — whether it be a timeslot, after-hours delivery, hyperlocal delivery or a collection point. These on-demand options are what are obtainable globally.
Online retail business in Nigeria is growing with all fervour, with foremost e-commerce retailer, Jumia Nigeria hitting the five-year mark and celebrating massively with its customers, employees and partners in the #YouMakeUsJumia campaign that offers up to 70% discounts on Jumia.com.ng.
But, except online retail stores in Nigeria get it right, despite the convenience of online shopping, a better percentage of Nigerians would continue to find it difficult to shop online and shun physical stores.