It was yet another #MoMoNigeria event on the 25th of Feb. 2013. The turnout was impressive although the event kicked off at 6:45pm due to traffic issues. The topic of discussion was how new e-commerce businesses could overcome the problems faced by all the players in the e-commerce space. These problems either break the business models of companies or help them learn their lessons and move on to become stronger businesses in the future.
Present to speak at the event were Lukas Zels and Dika Oha, two key players in Nigeria’s e-commerce scene. Lukas Zels is the managing director of Kaymu, an e-commerce website that allows you to sell your old stuff (very much like eBay) and is owned and operated by Rocket Internet GMBH. He brings his experience from running e-commerce businesses in Germany to Nigeria.
Dika Oha was formerly with DealDey (one of the leading daily deals websites in Nigeria) and is now the managing director of an e-commerce outsourcing firm called EOS (E-Commerce Outsourcing Services) which specializes in setting up various aspects of an e-commerce business, including logistics and payment. He has extensive experience in the processes involved in the e-commerce process.
Dika Oha started off the event by speaking about problems facing start-up e-commerce businesses, some of which include:
1. The dependence of e-commerce businesses on the ecosystem: There are about 100 e-commerce businesses in Nigeria, yet not many of them are doing exceptionally well. This is mainly because only about 100,000 people are loyal and active online shoppers. A lot still needs to be done in the e-commerce space in terms of building customer loyalty and trust. Without these two key factors in place, customers will always be wary of shopping online.
2. Logistics: Getting the products to the people in a timely fashion.
3. Payment systems: The current systems are not user friendly and they add additional steps to the checkout process. There is also no viable payment system for in-app purchases.
4. Cost of business: The costs of running the marketing and technical aspects of the business are very prohibitive hence if revenue is not made at the early stages, the business is bound to fail. He also mentioned that the banks need to boost customer confidence and listen to merchants by providing products that are tailored to fit their needs. He closed by talking about how EOS will help new merchants to set up every aspect of their e-commerce stores.
Lukas Zels spoke about how a customer centric e-commerce business can improve its revenue by providing convenience (e.g. free shipping), variety (lots of products across a broad number of categories) and low prices. He also talked about how Kaymu is planning to be the number one online marketplace in Nigeria.
You can download their presentations by clicking on the links below:
a. Presentation by Lukas Zels of Kaymu at the February MobileMonday Nigeria event for February 2013
b. Presentation by Dika Oha of EOS at the February MobileMonday Nigeria event for February 2013
The next MobileMonday Nigeria event holds on the 25th of March, 2013. Till then, here are some photos from the event.
