What I love about online shopping websites in Nigeria

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With the internet, a Nigerian no longer has to stretch all the way to the USA or UK to buy the things he wants. He or she also need not to go to the local markets ot stores just to look for items and bargain on prices. Local Online shopping has become a reality in Nigeria thanks to numerous online shopping websites like Jumia, Konga, Quickteller, Hellofood, Easyappetite and so on.

One of the things I love about online shopping websites in Nigeria is the convenience it offers when shopping. If you are someone who lives a busy life at the office or just like staying at home, you can conveniently order for the things you want without leaving your home or office and have it delivered to you. Ordinarily, Nigerians are used to visiting shops after shops and supermarkets one by one just to look for stuff which in most cases you don't readily find. The markets in Nigerian cities such as Lagos or Anambra are so segregated that you may not find all you are looking for in one market and may go all the way to somewhere like Alaba just to find a specific brand of electronics. With online shopping, this can save you the stress and you'd also be able to know how much it sells for.

Another reason why I love some of these online shopping websites is that prices are competitive and reasonable. Shopping at local markers by yourself can either rip you off or save you some money depending on how good you are in bargaining for price. Most of the stuff merchants normally sell in Nigeria have no fixed prices and it's basically based on how much they estimate you can pay. If you go to buy things like foodstuff or fruits at the market and you go to the seller with your car, he would most likely sell it to you at a price higher than someone who went there on foot. Although prices are negotiable but this would only be based on your own knowledge of what a reasonable price is. With online shopping, many websites tend to put a price tag on their products and services and since they know that they have competition, they simply put a price that is reasonable and you can choose to either buy or not.

A third reason why I love shopping on some local Nigerian websites is because they mostly offer a quicker delivery to one's home or office. The amount of time you would spend on ordering on international websites or shopping abroad and bringing the item here in Nigeria is significantly much more than if you just ordered on local shopping websites who are mostly ready to do a delivery within 24 hrs if you are in city like Lagos or Abuja. So if what you want to buy is already available in Nigeria on these local websites, it would make sense to simply buy it from them.

Fourthly, I love the pay on delivery option. Yes, most online shopping websites also allow Nigerians to hold onto their cash until they receive the item they have ordered for and so you no longer need to pay in advance using a bank deposit, credit or debit card. This is actually a good thing since not many people in Nigeria trust online shopping that much. Payment on delivery simply allows you to pay after the item has been delivered and not in advance and so it eliminates the fear that it could be a fraud.

A fifth reason why I love online shopping websites in Nigeria is the free shipping service that they sometimes offer. If you are buying a lot of stuff or shopping for some specific products on local websites, there are opportunities for free shipping to your home or office. This means is that you get to save some money on transportation costs which you might have spent for getting the item sent to you. If you are shopping online and the offer comes with free shipping, you should take the opportunity as long as the purchase price is reasonable.

Using the internet to Shop online in Nigeria is a great thing and we need to take more advantage of it. Who knows, perhaps in the future, there would probably be no traffic on the road or crowd at the shopping malls since more Nigerians would then be used to buying things online.

Posted by Felix Okoli on Wednesday March 26, 2014 at 13:23:32: