THE FUTURE OF COMMERCE IN NIGERIA
LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE FUTURE OF COMMERCE IN NIGERIA!
While growing up, I frequently heard my elder brother always talking about ordering for stuff online from Amazon: Kindle, phones, PC etc.
I always saw that as one big thing like that 😂
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I always wondered, ‘Is it that we can’t buy this one in ‘Ariaria mkt’ or at least ‘St. Michael’s’ because we lived in Aba as at that time.
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What you don’t understand is that the speed at which tech is changing everything about commerce is quite alarming!
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Few years ago, it wouldn’t make sense to the average person to hear that you want to buy a wrist watch and then you are NOT going to ‘Ariaria’, Computer Village, Main Market, Wuse Market’ or the likes, rather you are behind your phone combing through an online store.
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I mean, buying things online was for the ‘elite’ or at least ‘obodo oyiboish’ kind of people 😂
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Fast-forward to today . . . I learn everything and anything I want to learn online and also buy most of my stuff online . . . Platforms like Udemy and YouTube consume more data on my device that Whatsapp and Facebook! Every single dime my company makes doesn’t require meeting anybody offline.
As a matter of fact, part of our company’s business is to help other businesses go viral ONLINE!
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Why??? THINGS HAVE CHANGED . . . and it is WISDOM to adapt as quickly as possible
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Before I go . . . I’ll leave you with three business advice for free!
- IF YOUR BUINESS IS NOT VISIBLE ONLINE YOU WILL SOON BE EBBED OUT
i.e If I come online, I should be able to know what you sell and also buy from you online as easy as I can buy from you offline!
Someone will say: but how can I buy things like crayfish, yam and tomato online? What???? Didn’t you see Konga and Jumia are now selling goat, cow, chicken and pig???
Smh! You don’t know warris gohen on! 🙄
Just wait till online stores that would be selling condiments such as ugu, uziza, okpeyi, egusi, banga and ogiri start popping up with the speed of light!
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It will sound funny now but that’s how selling ‘goat’ online sounded few years ago . . . but just remember I said it when it starts happening!
This our generation does not like stress!!! If they can get it online at the same price they can in the market . . . Of what use are you to them anymore? I’ll rather have you bring my stuff to my doorstep than take the stress to go to the market and still buy it at the same price!
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- THE GENERATION COMING BEHIND US ARE GROWING UP WITH THESE THINGS: SMARTPHONES, AI, AND SOPHISTICATED ENGINEERING etc.
In our own time, we didn’t have access to some of this things as early as our children would! Where do you think they will get their orientation from??? And where do you think they would prefer to buy from??? Online or Offline??
When next you go to market, check the proportion of older people you see in the market in relation to youths and you’ll realize that the youth do not come to market anymore.
When this generation of people who are currently 50 and above will pass on to glory . . . You think this our elite generation has time to be running around to buy something they can simply click a button and it appears on their doorstep by evening of the same day???
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- THE ATTENTION SPAN OF YOUR CUSTOMERS IS GREATLY COMPROMISED. YOU MUST KNOW THIS!
Gone are the days when someone would sit back and watch your 10minutes advert for one single product! Now??? YOU’RE JOKING!
The average person on Whatsapp has atleast 300 picture/video slide to view in his or Whatsapp status and Facebook story per day.
What makes you think they’ll waste time with your ad for more than one minute???
If you can’t capture their attention in 30seconds and pass your message, you will be grossly underperforming!
With this few points of mine, I hope I’ve been able to convince and not confuse you that you need to break out of that your orthodox mindset of commerce and embrace tech as early as possible! 😁
You can’t fight it, bro . . . You just need to learn to make use of it as early as possible!
I hope I’m making sense??? Feel free to drop your own advice too on the comment section.
✍️ Chiazokam Obinwa