List of 40 online shopping websites in Nigeria

Posted by Felix Okoli on Wednesday November 5, 2014 at 9:26:55:

Over the past 5 years or so, there has been a sporadic growth in online business in Nigeria. One sector which has helped contribute to this growth by virtue of their investment and booming customer base is the online shopping sector. While some of them are niche websites meaning that they sell mostly one type of stuff, others are basically general shopping websites meaning that they sell a wider variety of stuff.

Their numbers have grown and it's only fitting that I at least provide a list of most of them. I do hope that mot of them will still be in business for the next 10 years.

Here is a list of 40 online shopping websites that operate in Nigeria as at 5th November 2014:

1. www.konga.com
2. www.jumia.com.ng
3. www.dealdey.com
4. www.kaymu.com.ng
5. www.tafoo.com
6. www.kara.com.ng
7. www.mystore.com.ng
8. www.shopaholicng.com
9. www.adibba.com
10. www.walahi.com
11. www.hellofood.com.ng
12. www.easyappetite.com
13. www.buyright.biz
14. www.gloo.ng
15. www.rahmastores.com
16. www.laurensonline.com
17. www.smartbuy.ng
18. www.shopkolo.com
19. www.emartnigeria.com
20. www.naijastles.com
21. www.yakora.ng
22. www.awoofshop.com
23. www.quickteller.com
24. www.slotlimited.com
25. www.ozyet.com
26. www.citychops.com
27. www.supermart.ng
28. www.shopandmall.com.ng
29. www.rytedeals.com
30. www.oyoyo.com.ng
31. www.ohmashoes.com
32. www.buyam.com.ng
33. www.brandnubians.com
34. www.awufu.com
35. www.dsclng.com
36. www.jaramall.com
37. www.sizelle.com
38. www.buylikemagic.com
39. www.egoleshopping.com
40. www.webmallng.com

What is common among these shopping websites?

There are a lot of things I've noticed that is common among these shopping websites and these include things like offering customers the ability to make payments through a variety of means rather than just credit cards. In Nigeria, most people tend to use cash or debit cards and so these websites tend to accept cash on delivery, bank deposit and even POS payments. They also mostly ship within Lagos although shipping costs may vary depending on how close the buyer's address is from the shopping website's store. Most online shopping sites tend to have warehouses in Lagos from where they deliver to buyers all over Nigeria. When it comes to delivery, some of them have their own in-house delivery service while some patronize local courier services like DHL or Fedex at the expense of the buyer.

How do Nigerians get to buy things from these local websites?

Well, most of these websites tend to require a buyer to first of all get registered and for most of their platforms, registration can easily be done using social platforms like Facebook or Yahoo mail. People will need to first get registered and have their account verified by means of their mobile phones.

Once they've registered their account, they can then log into the shopping website, browse for products, add them to cart, choose to checkout, choose a payment option and then complete their order. When the merchant is ready to ship, they inform the buyer and the item is normally delivered to the buyer's shipping address.

As for payment, the common means of payment is cash on delivery but other options include bank deposits, bank transfers, wallet payment, debit and credit card. Unlike sites like Amazon, payment is not mostly made with credit card in Nigeria. It is mostly cash payments that are used.

How are orders confirmed?

Since online orders can be prone to abuse, shopping websites in Nigeria tend to confirm orders first of all before shipping the order. They normally do this by calling the buyer's registered phone to confirm the order before shipping the ordered items.

How do customers track an order and know when it would be delivered?

I have to say that it can be hard knowing in advance which particular day a online buyer would receive his goods after placing the order as shopping websites only tend to give an estimate of how long it's going to take. It can take anywhere as from 3 days to 1 week. However, customers are normally called by phone by their courier before their order would be shipped. If customers receive a phone call from the courier shipping his goods, he may confirm that he will be available to receive the goods or reschedule another date for his delivery. I've not really seen any shopping website that offers a 1 or 2 day delivery service within Lagos yet. Most of them tend to take about 3 days.

Do Nigerian shopping websites offer free delivery service?

In most cases now but they only tend to do so if the buyer spends above a minimum value e.g. N10,000(about $60). Some shopping websites offer free delivery to their high value customers while they would charge a fee for small items. Online shoppers outside Lagos might have to pay more on shipping costs than those in Lagos.

Which shopping websites do I personally recommend?

Well, I've tried out the following and highly recommend them: Konga, Jumia, Dealdey,