There are prospects of growth and increasing patronage particularly in Ecommerce retail sales. Driven largely by the convenience of placing an order online, and having it delivered to your doorstep. More consumers are exploring this option for buying their basic necessities.
Below are 10 business opportunities in Ecommerce with great prospects
1. Selling online – Sell your products and services on already established online stores, the popular ones are Jumia, Konga, Dealdey, Kaymu, and also Efritin, olx etc. They offer marketplaces and other platforms for you to sell your products, and usually charge a commission for each completed sale. We have B2C (Business to Consumer) sales which are mainly done on the marketplaces, whil C2C (Consumer to Consumer) sales which can be done on online listing sites.
2. Owning your own Marketplace – There are proliferation of new marketplaces, which allow merchants to sign up and then sell their products. Most are free while some charge you a fee or are subscription based. Vconnect requires you to pay a fee for selling on their platform, while Konga recently introduced the monthly subscription fee for merchants. Having your own marketplace means that you could make money from sign up or subscription fees, commission on sales, and delivery cost paid by buyer for their ordered products. However, a substantial capital base is needed in order to make a success of this.
3. Logistics/ Delivery – An online transaction is said to be complete after the order has being received by the buyer, and this has to be done within the stipulated time frame. With increases in demand comes increase in number of deliveries for fulfilling these orders. Lagos currently remains the largest market, and as such, more than 40% of orders made online are by Lagos residents. So deciding to deliver within Lagos only (because of limited means) can still sustain a delivery company. One or two delivery motorbikes are enough to get started and with charges ranging from N600 to N1,000 per delivery, getting good customers and repeat businesses will lead to success.
4. Social Media Marketing – We live in an age where social media has revolutionized the way we interact with each other. This is also used as a marketing tool as brands use this medium to interact and get information from their customers. Brand ambassadors can be recruited from here and encouraged to reach out to those in their sphere of contact. The social media savvy run promotions and ads campaign, build fan base, share information about brands to their followers. Others manage the social media accounts of these companies and are paid based and agreed terms.
5. Consulting – A lot of business organizations, particularly those into buying and seling, require participation in online sales. And most of these organizations don’t know much about selling online. I currently consult for some organizations, and have had the opportunity to advice some others on the best possible way of selling their products online. They seek for those with relevant skill, knowledge and experience to guide their online business through the murky Ecommerce business. You should know your onions, and be ready to provide practical solutions that will produce positive results for them.
6. Affiliate Marketing – Even if you do not have your own products to sell, affiliate marketing allows you to earn commission for selling others’ products. The commissions are usually specified when you sign up, and all you have to do is advertise the products on your blog, social media account, electronic newsletter, or any other electronic media that you have a modest audience. It’s a convenient way to start if you don’t have the required start up capital to purchase your goods.
7. Web Development – All online stores, whether retail or marketplace, run on the internet. They are websites designed for displaying products, and with features that enable you to order and pay online. These online stores are built by web developers and they don’t come very cheap. Those with basic web development knowledge like css, php, mysql etc can familiarize themselves with the skills needed to create and host online stores. New stores are coming online daily, and more merchants are itching to have their their own stores up and running, especially as they realize that the changing policies of established marketplaces seems to hit them negatively.
8. Mini Importation – From google search, you can get a lot of information on mini importation and how to get your products from countries like China and America, into Nigeria. Ecommerce provides a platform for quick sales of products imported and therefore encourages more people to get involved in the trade and best of all is that it doesn’t require massive capital outlay to get started. Although the falling rate of the naira recently is affecting many people into this business, but Nigerians will still buy, that is one thing that is for sure!
9. Warehouse Leasing – Ecommerce retailing is a game changer for logistics, especially as regards to warehouse and storage leasing. Warehouses are usually large, and mainly used by importers and manufacturers for storage of their goods. Today, warehouse goes beyond serving as storage, but also provides some value added services which many now refer to as fulfillment centers or hubs. Services like self storage, sortation, order processing, cross docking, reverse logistics etc, are also provided in this new type of warehouse. Ventures like this require that you have substantial capital outlay to buy or own the warehouse for providing such services.
10. Photography – Products sell better with great images. These can be achieve if the images are taken with good photographers with professional cameras, and excellent lighting. Gradually, these services are being increasingly demanded. And those already practicing do not require additional capital outlay to service this need.
These are my 10 best, of course there are other business opportunities.