Ecommerce Giants in Nigeria such as Jumia.com.ng and konga.com have a large amount of market share when it comes to general ecommerce consumables, groceries and other products. Even though these leaders in eCommerce are doing exceptionally well and are also creating alternatives for merchants who sell on their platform, there are numerous tools that can be used to build up your own ecommerce business in Nigeria.
Advantages of having a storefront on a major eCommerce provider like konga include:
- Access to a ready market
- Deliverable capacity
- Brand exposure etc.
These are all great, but you also have to deal with rise in competition, price wars, homogeneous markets and commission fees.
It’s always harder differentiating your brand from the rest, building specific landing pages to drive conversion, extensive analytics on traffic sources and advertising options are some of the reasons some companies will rather build their own eCommerce store.
That’s why building your own personal eCommerce brand is key, and you won’t have to keep haggling your price down.
And if you’re seriously thinking of building your own personal eCommerce brand, then you need to pay attention to this article.
Here are a few things you need to look for:
Position Yourself in The Right Demographic
This will definitely take a lot of effort, and you will need a great level of consistency to be able to pull it off.
You need to know where your customers are. Are they on social media, forums, search engines or other platforms? A clothing store will be very active on facebook and instagram.
A case study done by shopify.com on an australian clothing and fashion eCommerce store, “Blackmilk Clothing”.
The following is an excerpt from an interview on spotify.com
“Started in 2009, the company began when Lillis sold his first legging for $10. Today Black Milk Clothing is a multi-million dollar company that’s grown to 150 people and distributes its products globally.
And the best part? They’ve been able to do all that with a $0 marketing and advertising budget.”
This company utilised instagram to showcase their products to their fans, the formula was simple. Customers were sharing pictures of themselves in blackmilk clothing across instagram.
For facebook, Blackmilk does a lot of incredible marketing tricks.
From the interview – “We’ve got about 80 private Facebook groups around the world and that’s all by geographic location or special hobbies and interests. It could be Black Milk Canada, Black Milk USA, but then it’s broken up across, you know, east coast, west coast, then we’ve got Europe in individual countries, Australia, so all these groups, they all meet up. They all catch up all around the world and we help facilitate that. “
Black milk appealed to their demographic and maximized the potential of social media to tap into the market.
Consistency is necessary
Consistency in your brand efforts is important when growing your eCommerce brand. According to neil patel, “Once you’ve figured your message, it’s important to stick with it and use it consistently in all your marketing activities.”
In your marketing efforts, ensure your logo, design and other materials.
It’s important to be consistent with eCommerce brand image and your brand colours.
Be certain that you are keeping your visuals consistent with your users, do not break transmission with the flow of your brand and keep your designs simple and clear.
Boost your performance with Adverts
Okay, so your storefront is live and active, but there are a few things you can do to boost your digital marketing campaigns in order to bring in clients for your eCommerce storefront.
Online Ads is a great avenue to build your business, because it gives companies the opportunity to fast track your processes, an offer can be tested to check if it’s reasonable and is accepted within your market, this includes testing your value proposition.
Rather than building an organic campaign that might take six months, only to realize that the market is uninterested in what you’re offering, paid ads gives the opportunity to present your offers to the market with a little marketing budget.
Conclusion
Owning your own eCommerce store is a tough decision to make, the competition is getting stiffer everyday, and the barrier to entry is getting slimmer. But with a great product, brand, USP and a capable team, you stand a fighting chance to own your own piece of the market.
