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Online Businesses: Nigeria's Loss

Online Business: Nigeria’s Loss

The phenomenom of the world wide web might not be fully appreciated until people take a look at the the books of companies such as Google, Yahoo, Amazon e.t.c., purely internet companies that have built reputations in the corporate world as solid profit or dividend earners. Lately, small companies run by very young entrepreneurs such as Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebookhave an estimated book value in excess of $10bn and have revenues knocking in the range of $1bn.

Built as a social networking site, facebook is an advertiser’s delight as the user is dished a torrent of adverts subtly which keeping in touch or “peeping” into other people’s lives. Facebook’s membership hit 200 million users worldwide in April 2009 and shows the very powerful reach of a simple graphical interface which to access takes just a connection to the internet.

Sadly, the phenomenom of the internet, though well known in Nigeria, is viewed with a lot of suspicion due to the prevalence of scammers who have made online activities, emails and fraudulent activities online, synonymous with Nigeria. As a result of this mistrust, the ease and convinience associated with moving a business from brick and mortar, offline and manual to being automated and online, simply by making a lot of repeated tasks very easy to achieve for the business, cannot be transferred to businesses based in Nigeria.

Coupled with this problem of mistrust, key issues which are headaches for intending Nigerian entrepreneurs looking to take advantage of this lucrative method of doing business, is the lack of adequate internet connection such as broadband as well as stable eletricity. These two factors are so key such that their absence of inadequate provision renders the possiblity of embarking on the business, a futility.

When I started Bringitbay (www.bringitbay.com), in October 2008, I ran it from my bedroom in Essex, UK until I returned to Nigeria at the end of January 2009. Virtual office facilities made it very possible for me to run my operations globally while positioning the business as one with a larger than life image. The presence of infrastructures ensured also that I was able to leverage on existing operations and logistics efficiencies of of existing businesses such that I received orders from Nigerians in Nigeria and shipped the items to them without laying my eyes on the items throughout the logistics process. This is only possible with the power of the internet. In less than 7 months, my business has clocked a turnover in excess of £25,000 all because I launched my business outside Nigeria and have non-Nigerian operations and logistics.

I am aware of many who look to start their own businesses online however are unable to so due to the lack of adequate facilities and infrastructures to make their operations a success. As the objective of any business will always be to make a tidy profit, there is also the need to consistently modify the ideas and business models to be accomodated to the circumstances and environment in which the business is in. Several alternatives to broadband connection exist in the country such as the more popular carry around dungles which are mobile internet access devices that can be used for accessing the internet.

As regards the issue of trust, the inability to receive payments online remains a very ugly blight, as major international cards, though now available through Nigerian banks, are not effective for making purchases online from Nigerian stores or non-Nigerian stores. Fraudulent transactions are synonymous with Nigeria, thus majority of Nigerian and non-Nigerian sites do not even accept cards this defeating the purpose of shopping online. This throws up a lot of challenges however, alternative payment solutions exists such as integrating Interswitch payment as an option amongst others such as eTranzact, and cash deposits.

The bottom line here is that on an annual basis, Nigeria’s inability to partake fully in global e-commerce means it loses out on a business model that generates in excess of $500bn alone in worldwide sales for 2008 (quote) and is expected to quadruple by 2012 as more products and services are made available for purchase via online sales.

Shopping Online from Nigeria!

While under intense pressure to gain academic excellence in the past 12 months, I realised that Nigerians have not been able to enjoy the fruits of the global phenomenom, e-commerce. Many Nigerian sites have in the past attempted to come up with e-commerce business models and have not made much of mark. While pondering over this, I observed that many organisations in the West and albeit large parts of the world refused to ship to African addresses out of numerous excuses such as "import duty", phoney customers and the likes. This greatly hampered a lot of genuine Nigerians who are eager to shop for their tastes online from the comfort of their homes and offices.

Of course then there is the very serious issue of intent to defraud which a small cabal of dishonest persons have caused the image of Nigeria and Nigerians to be horrendously tainted. You only need to mention Nigeria to invite serious and suspicious stares from people (even Nigerians who prefer not to be associated with Nigeria!).

In this light, I commenced a study about the Nigerian Apparel Retail industry and the results showed that many people in Nigeria (Lagos especially - over 90% of my result came from Lagos) were not satisfied with several aspects of what is currently available. Highest on the list were the issues of variety, quality and customer service. I searched and examined several on how I could use e-commerce to bridge this gap and ended up with an innovative company called on-d-go Limited. The details of on-d-go i will not go into here, as eventually, a spin-off company called Bringitbay was formed and represents the ideal e-commerce site for apparel merchandising targeted at Nigerians and for Nigerians.

Bringitbay is targeted at young business executives and many Nigerians alike who do not always want to go through the hassle of coming to the UK on vacation before buying and restocking their variety of clothing. Also, why wait for a friend to travel, and have them try to select your clothes, before you decide what you want to wear?

Once you are ready to replace or top-up your wardrobe, all you need do is drop by the Bringitbay website to shop for several world class apparel brands all in one place. On one hand some people like to look good and will spare no cost to look trendy, while some others like to look good but with a cap on their spending. Some people are plus sizes or small and experience challenges finding their right fit amongst clothes in several shops while shopping in Nigeria. Some others dread the routine of shopping in places like Lagos where there are not enough places that stock variety and quality apparels and accessories. 

For all these people, Bringitbay.com offers a service which enables you to shop for your desired product from our online portal, www.bringitbay.com using an order form. Our website offers an array of online shops ranging from Austin Reed, Charles Tyrwhitt, T.M. Lewin, Next, House of Fraser to Matches, ASOS, H&M, Top Woman e.t.c.

We also have in place a dedicated Customer Support team who are always ready to take enquiries and assist in making those critical style decisions. Bringitbay will begin taking orders from September 22, 2008 and will launch in the first week in October. Future businesses incude creating a database of the nearest tailors to your locations starting with Lagos and then for the whole of Nigeria, such that you get to take your clothes to the best available tailors based on individual reviews. Bringitbay is an innovative company based in the UK but with roots in Nigeria and the Nigerian dream. The aim is to continue to apply innovation to service with the dream of creating an authentic Nigerian Apparel industry.

Enjoy the shopping bliss!