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 the order form provided. 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!
