There is a relatively high level of awareness on e-commerce in Nigeria, as about 5 in 10 Nigerians (53 percent) showed awareness of online shopping, and of this proportion, 25 percent further indicated that they shop online or know someone who does, according to latest public opinion poll results released by NOIPolls.
These findings suggest that while online shopping only started gaining popularity in Nigeria in recent years due to the springing up of indigenous online shopping sites, its awareness and usage is relatively encouraging.
This arguably could be linked to the rising usage of the internet by Nigerians, further buttressed by the social media survey conducted by NOIPolls in February 2016 which revealed that 63 percent of Nigerians are on one form of social media platform, or the other accessing the internet mostly through their mobile phones and other internet enabled devices.
More findings from the poll revealed Jumia as the top online shopping platform in Nigeria in terms of popularity (68 percent) and usage (58 percent); this is followed by ‘Konga’ with 59 percent popularity and 30 percent usage. Other sites with considerable popularity include ‘OLX’ (18 percent) and ‘Kaymu’ (7 percent) amongst other online retail shopping platforms.
It is important to note that the indigenous online shopping sites such as Jumia, Konga etc. which have sprung up in the last few years seemed to have gained more popularity and usage than foreign online shopping sites such as Amazon, Aliexpress etc. This may be likely due to factors such as proximity, currency of dealing, delivery and terms of payment of the both categories of sites in view. For instance while the indigenous sites offer services like payment on delivery (heightening the assurance of customers), foreign sites do not offer this service as payments need to be done before delivery. In addition, Nigerians consider ‘convenience’ (46 percent) ‘quality’ (16 percent), ‘variety of products’ (10 percent) ‘delivery time’ (6 percent) as the most important factors that influence their decision to shop online.
An assessment of the online shopping experiences of respondents revealed that most Nigerians (61 percent) who shop online are satisfied with their online retail shopping experience, although a considerable proportion of respondents in this category responded negatively. This is no surprise given the fact that the satisfaction level of consumers is bound to differ due to the several online shopping platforms available in the country and the varying expectations of individual consumers from these platforms. Finally, while poll results revealed positive figures in terms of awareness, usage and satisfaction rating of online shopping in Nigeria, online retailers must constantly work to improve service areas such as delivery time, delivery charges, as well as their privacy policy so as to assure customers of the security and confidentiality of their personal data, hence encouraging more customers to shop online thus enhancing growth in the e-commerce industry.
