Nigerians are great beneficiaries of the beauty brought about by online shopping sites. More people living in Nigerian cities now prefer to log into their phones and computes and buy items online with the click of the button instead of going to the market themselves.
The Irresistibly benefits of online shopping such as their easiness, convenience and speed are baits that lure people to patronize them.
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There are many online shopping sites in Nigeria which serve the needs of the people. We will take a look at some of those sites below.
1. Jumia
Now, this is arguably the most popular online shopping site in Nigeria. The company has gained a lot of ground and is often mistaken by newcomers to be the only online retailing site in the country.
The company was founded in Lagos by Raphael Kofi Afaedor and Tunde Kehinde.
Jumia was founded in 2012 and went on to find great reception in the country. The company has since witnessed immense growth and now has a presence across as many as 14 African countries.
Jumia is famed around Nigeria for the vast array of contents they boast of. Users can find virtually everything they want on the platform. From electronics to accessories, clothing, books, fashion and style items, electronics, home appliances and so son, Jumia boasts of having almost everything ‘buyable’ on its platform and it is still growing.
The company is famed to have introduced the first “Black Friday” sales to Nigeria, gaining a massive following from the populace as a result. With over 16 million likes on Facebook, 188,000 followers on Twitter and 200,000 followers on Instagram, Jumia is the leading online shopping platform in Nigeria.
2. Konga
Konga is also massive. It is, in fact, considered to be the biggest rival of Jumia. This online shopping site is often regarded to be one of the most easy-to-use platforms in Nigeria.
Just like Jumia, Konga was also founded in 2012 by Sim Shagaya in Lagos. The platform went on to gain a massive following in its rights. Initially starting out as a Lagos-only online retailer, the platform went on to spread their activities around the entire Nigeria few months after it started operations.
The company now offers a third-party online marketplace. This means that the company encourages independent retailers under them. This is one of the things that makes them unique. The company also offers first-party direct retail.
Konga offers various contents for sale spanning across various categories such as home appliances, books, consumer electronics, children’s items, fashion, personal care products, health care and much more.
3. Slot
Slot took everyone by storm when it launched in Nigeria. Unlike other online retail sites, slot is majorly interested in sales of electronic gadgets. Over time, it has grown to live up to its reputation as the household name for “affordable and durable mobile phones, electronics, laptops and accessories for all classes of people.”
Slot was founded by Nnamdi Ezeigbo who started out as just a small scale seller and repairer of computers. He soon grew larger and expanded his business to what it is now known as.
Even though slot is available online, it is also now the largest offline retailer of phones and computers in Nigeria.
Slot is also the most trusted seller of mobile and other electronic gadgets at the moment.
4. Jiji
Jiji is one of the most talked about online market places in Nigeria. The company prides itself in its ability to bring people together to trade.
The company was founded in 2014 and is owned by Genesis Technology Partners. Jiji has witnessed great acceptance among many Nigerians largely because of the way it connects buyers and sellers. Almost everyone who has something they want to sell, now thinks of Jiji first. The growth has been quite phenomenal.
In fact, the company announced in January 2018, that it had held as many as over 800,000 ads which went on to attract nothing less than 160,000 sellers and 7 million original users per month. Most of these people were looking to bargain for mobile phones, cars,cosmetics, household goods, livetsock, electronics and so on.
Jiji as an online marketplace actually provides an avenue for thousands of buyers and sellers to meet and exchange the goods and services they have to offer.
5. DealDey
Dealdey was launched in Nigeria in March 2011 and has gone on to become quite popular on the internet. The platform is lauded for its simplicity.
DealDey is one of a handful of players in Nigeria’s very fluid e-commerce space. The shopping site is respected for aggregating daily online discounts on popular services and goods.
The company also prides itself as “Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest online deals platform, naming ‘over 1 million users, 15,000 active merchants, and 20,000 verified listed businesses.'”
6. Kara
Although it is quite emerging, Kara has gained some grounds in Nigeria.
The company focuses on retailing home appliances and electronics like tablets, phones, laptops, generators and power inverters.
Kara is famed for having lesser prices tagged on their services, such that if a service is valued at N50,000 on a retailing site, it may be valued at N48,000 on Kara.
7 . Parktel
Just like SLOT, Parktell International Limited is an online market place which is dedicated only to the sale of mobile phones and tablets.
Although not as popular as SLOT at the moment, this online shopping site is proving to be a big rival with the way it provides massive discounts and advertises.
Although it has quite a big presence on the internet, the Parktel company also has has a huge physical presence in Computer Village, Ikeja, Lagos.
8. SME Markethub
SME Markethub is very popular among business owners. This is because of the liberty it offers them to promote their businesses and meet new customers on the internet.
On SME Markethub, small scale business owners can register and sell off their goods and services to teeming customers. The platform also provides a veritable avenue for buyers to meet a number of sellers.
The SME Markethub is owned by GT Bank and prides itself in its ability to provide the needed audiences from far and near for small businesses to sell to.
9. Payporte
Payporte is one of the fastest growing retail sites in Nigeria. Just like Konga, it is equipped with a variety of virtually everything ‘buyable’.
Payporte became one of the most talked about online retail companies in Nigeria when it hosted the widely watched Big Brother Naija reality show for two consecutive seasons (2017 and 2018). As the show increased its followership, Payporte increased its visibility, customers and patronage.
The site offers items for sale including smart phones, household electronics, fashion items, clothes, accessories and many others
10. OLX
OLX Nigeria is another buzzing online shopping site in the country which has garnered quite a large following among internet users. This is largely due to what most customers have described as it’s “very straightforward and user-friendly features”
OLX Nigeria is part of the OLX Group which is a global online marketplace with it’s world headquarters in Amsterdam. The company is owned by Naspers, a South African media and technology group.
Since its inception in 2006, the company has grown massively and has now spread out its operation across 45 countries around the world.
The OLX Group launched OLX Nigeria in 2012 with high hopes of recreating its global success in the worlds most populous lack nation. The growth was phenomenal because in 2015, the company reported that it had already had more than three million sellers and buyers in the country.
In February 2018, the company announced that it was closing its office in Nigeria but will still remain functional for its many buyers and sellers to operate.
Speaking on this, Uche Nwagboso, OLX Nigeria’s Public Relations and Communications Lead, said: “We made a difficult but important decision in Nigeria to consolidate our operations between some of our offices internationally. Our marketplace will continue to operate here – uninterrupted – as it has since 2010, and we remain committed to the many people here who use our platform to buy and sell every month”.
