2024 will throw up major opportunities, and my bet is on e-commerce being one of the most impacted in Nigeria.
As a young manager in 2013, I developed an e-commerce portal where my organization’s FMCG products were sold to external customers. Within a few months, we had about N5 million in sales (the figure was huge then, as Konga and Jumia just started some months earlier). Since then, I have been fascinated by the world of e-commerce, and quietly but timidly became a keen follower (Should have followed my guts).
One of the e-commerce giants that fascinated me most was DEALDEY. It had massive traffic, and was kinda different to its other competitors (Konga and Jumia), in those days. They had mouth-watering deals for Real Estate, SPA, Medicals, etc; and were the darlings of both sellers and buyers. But why did they die?
Many reasons could be ascribed to the death of DealDey; Sim Shagaya leaving in 2011 to create Konga is one of the many reasons, while the 2015 economic recession is another huge factor. Likewise, the typical nigerian factor of not managing growth well enough, can as well be mentioned. Some experts also said Nigeria is not ripe for ecommerce. Many reasons, but time has changed, but will DEALDEY have survived in these modern times?
I might be wrong, but I believe that physical logistics cost and issues is the bane of e-commerce in Nigeria. I think if Jumia hadn’t scaled too fast, managed logistics costs better, and been a little more conservative, they should have turned profitable within five years (
but what do I know). However, an e-commerce company that deals solely in the service industry (not worked up with logistics problems) will surely do well in these times. With the booming online population Nigeria has, its almost too certain to say the timing is just right for an ecommerce explosion.
Will we see a DEALDEY 2.0 this year? Time will tell…..