TechRegime

10 STEPS TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL E-COMMERCE IN NIGERIA

1,  BEING KNOWN FOR A PARTICULAR PRODUCT

E-commerce is simply the old school commerce gone online. With the advent of the internet comes opportunity for businesses to go online. E-commerce is simply buying and selling online using your computer or phone or other gadgets. Examples of website offering e-commerce are ebay.com, slot.ng, alibaba.com. Websites like ebay.com and alibaba.com offers buy and sell functionalities where customers can buy or  sell items. This type of e-commerce is called B2B (business to business). Other website like slot.ng offer buy only functionality where customers can only shop for mobile phones and other gadgets on the site.

To shop online all you need is a valid debit or credit card like VISA or MasterCard (what we popularly call ATM card in Nigeria).

2,  DIFFERENTIATING YOUR PRODUCTS OR BRAND FROM OTHERS. FOR EXAMPLE, TO BE THE ONE STOP SHOP FOR QUALITY BAGS, PHONES, OR ACCESSORIES.

Most e-commerce sites often specialize on a particular type of service or products. ebay.com for example specialize on offering it’s users the opportunity to trade-in their used items. If you have a used phone one of the best place you can re-sell it online quickly is ebay.com. Of course others sell brand new items there as well. slot.ng on the other hand specializes on selling “original” phones, laptops and accessories at much cheaper price than other dealers. This specialization ensures customers know exactly what they will get once they come to your website.

3,  WHY CUSTOMERS SHOULD BUY FROM YOUR E-STORE.

Most e-commerce sites have a niche product or service they offer.  You should ensure you have one thing that your e-commerce is known for and what differentiates you from others. To have customers shop at your online store ensure you have one thing they will always come to your store for. Have a good customer service, and make sure you have a refund policy whereby you allow customers to return an item that they bought but which didn’t meet their requirements. As a matter of courtesy make sure you state clearly on your website what your refund policies are. Customers need to know under what conditions shall goods be returned or not be returned after it’s bought.

4,  SPECIAL OFFERS OR BENEFITS THAT CUSTOMERS GET FOR SHOPPING ON YOUR E-STORE.

For your e-store to stay on top of the game make sure you have product available at all time, offer special incentives like coupons, Christmas offers, or other offers whenever there special holidays or festivities.

5,  CREATING AWARENESS FOR YOUR ONLINE STORE OR OFFERS.

It is advised you open an account for your online store on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google plus, LinkedIn. All these social sites allow you to pay to promote your brand or site to it’s members.

6,  CREATING A TARGETED CAMPAIGN

When advertising your product you have to create a targeted campaign by selecting the demography (age, gender) of the people you want to see your advert. If using Google you can even choose the behaviour of your potential customers. Example, you can target what your potential customers search on the internet. You can also choose the geography (location) you want your customers to come from. You can choose to advertise your goods or services to Nigerian only. Or you can choose to advertise it to more countries. With Google AdWords you can even choose whether you only want to advertise in Lagos, Port Harcourt or Abuja.

7,  USING CASH ON DELIVERY SERVICE C.O.D

In countries like Nigeria where e-commerce is fairly new it’s advisable you also add an option for your customers to pay cash on delivery COD.  Do make sure you have a method of verifying a genuine customer before embarking on COD sales.

8,  AFTER SALES SERVICES

When marketing online it’s advisable you have a physical address where you can offer after sales service. One of the reason slot.ng remains the best mobile phone store in Nigeria is because they have a physical office address all over Nigeria where customers can walk in after sales  and have SLOT staff attend to them should they want to replace or repair their gadgets.

9, GETTING CUSTOMERS FEEDBACK, GIVEN WARRANTY ON PRODUCTS

As earlier stated an e-commerce site must have a very reliable customer service that attend to customer queries. Customers love the fact though they’re buying online but they can talk to someone, if and when the need arise.

10, HAVING A RELIABLE WEB HOST.

Having a robust web host is highly recommended. When purchasing a domain for your e-commerce site make sure to host your website with a reliable web hosting provider.

By: NIGER AZU.

ONLINE MARKETING SPECIALIST

FOUNDER TECHREGIME.COM
Email: ebusiness@techregime.com