Years back only those who either owned stores, traded on the street or carted their goods from one office to another, were able to sell their goods. Today, anyone can be a retailer thanks to the growing number of ecommerce platforms that have opened shop in Nigeria. Online commerce is expanding every year, so why not think about becoming a seller on one of these platforms, instead of just a buyer or browser? It’s not as difficult as you think to start selling online. Here’s a quick guide to getting started on the major ecommerce sites – Konga, Jumia, Kaymu and OLX.

KONGA

1. You need to sign up as a merchant on the Konga website before you can sell.

2. The key details during registration include E-mail Address, Bank Account and Mobile Number. The details need to be accurate when you sign up as a merchant.

Why the key details are important are as follows:

E-mail Address: When a customer buy/orders your product on Konga, you will receive a mail with the title “You have a new order – Order No. #xxxxxxxxxxxx.”  The mail will show details of the order placed by the customer with the option to either ‘Accept’ or ‘Decline’ order. After accepting the order, you would be sent another mail titled “You have accepted order #xxxxxxxxxxx# . The mail contains the order number, customer’s name, address and the product that was ordered.

Bank Account: Your bank account is credited directly after you request pay-out for orders that were successfully delivered.

Mobile Number: An sms alert is sent to you when you have new orders. The message contains the Order Number that is required when there is a product to be shipped. Konga also send an sms alert to notify you when your product has been approved to go live on the website as customers can’t buy any product from your store without it being enabled.

Home Address: This is important so that Konga and their delivery partners can ship your return products to the address.

3. While buying via the Konga platform is free, selling is not free. The website earns commission on every successful sale, though there are no commissions for unsuccessful orders.

4. After you have successfully registered and verified your details, you would be sent access to the SellerHQ (Merchant Dashboard), where you upload your products, manage your inventory, monitor your sales and control your finances. Your product will have to be reviewed by Konga and approved before it can go live on site for customers to buy via the website.

5. When customer buy products from your store on the website, they will verify the customer’s details. After verification, Konga will send you a notification through sms, email and SellerHQ to process your new order.

6. After you have been notified of the new order, you have 24 hours to either accept or decline the order. If you choose to accept the order, you are expected to package your product, print order details sent to you via mail and ship.

7. After accepting a new order, you are expected to ship the order to the customer within 3 #business days. You can ship via these 3 options:

• Self-Delivery: You can take the order directly to the customer’s doorstep and collect payment at once if the customer’s location is within your reach.

• Third Party Shipping Partners: Ship your order through Konga’s logistic partners like DHL, UPS, QUO, CourierPlus, EMS and Chisco Transport. Shipping is at reduced Konga negotiated rate to anywhere in the country.

• Konga Express Delivery: You will take the new orders to Konga Express Drop Off Centre close to you for onward shipment to customer.

8. Konga will credit your wallet with the value once the order has been successfully delivered to the customer. You can therefore request for a pay-out to move the funds into your registered bank account.

JUMIA

1. Visit www.jumia.com.ng, check through the category section to ensure your goods fit into one of the categories listed on the website.

2. Write a short business proposal stating the information on the products you will be supplying. Jumia wants quality products at a relatively cheap price, cheap enough to make a good profit, and also good enough to entice customers.

3. Type the proposal out and forward it to [email protected] for a quality assurance officer to scrutinize the quality of the product on offer.

4. Once the quality assurance officer is satisfied, you will reach an agreement on the percentage commission that Jumia earns per sale.

5. Selling on Jumia is not as straightforward, because they do not allow third party to post items for sale. Unlike other e-commerce sites like Konga Marketplace, sellers can’t post items to sell with detailed information on Jumia.

KAYMU

1. Visit the Kaymu website to register as a user over there.

2. After the completion of your registration, log in and enter your e-mail and password.

3. Click on “SELL NOW” and then “START FIXED PRICE”, this is necessary to achieve straightforward transactions with potential buyers instead of going back and forth on the price.

4. The next step is product listing, where you give a precise description of the product you are listing and select a category that suits the item. Select the characteristics of your item, upload pictures and even show different angles to give potential buyers a proper feel of what they intend to buy. Product listing on the website is free of charge.

5. List the item’s condition, the sizes, duration of the product’s availability and the prices. It is important to list prices that would appeal to buyers so as to generate quick sales.

6. Finally, set the type of payment, the method of delivery and your preferable cost of delivery as the website is already in partnership with the biggest/most reliable delivery companies with suitable prices whenever they are needed. It is important to know that when one of your products is sold, you will be charged a selling fee depending on the category of your item.

 

OLX

1. Visit the website olx.com.ng to register. Enter your email address and password.

2. After registration, log in with your email address and password.

3. Take pictures of your items; one of the keys to getting quick sale is taking good pictures for buyers to see what you’re selling. The chance of selling an item with bad and blurry pictures is very slim.

4. Choose a category to which your item belongs to. Categories such as Electronics & Video, Animals & Pets, Fashion & Beauty, Mobile Phones & Tablets, Home, Furniture & Garden, Hobbies, Art & Sport, Real Estate, Jobs & Services and Vehicles are usually found on OLX in a bid to improve search efficiency.

5. Upload the good pictures of your item you had earlier taken for prospective buyers to understand what you are selling.

6. Choose an ad title and try to make it short, precise, descriptive and eye-catching. You also give your item descriptions where you state specifications, flaws and other important details about the item you want to sell.

7. Set a price that is realistic for the item. If you are too greedy, people will ignore your ad and if it is too low, people may think it’s a scam.

8. Provide a genuine contact information so that buyers can reach you if they have questions about the item on sale of if they want to make a deal.

9. The next step is to post the ad on OLX so that prospective buyers can view. Ads on OLX will however go through a review process by the OLX team to determine if all details provided are genuine for prospective buyers to trust.

Now you’ve got enough info to get started, get out there and put your products online. If you don’t have any products yet, scour the different ecommerce sites and get a feel for what sells well or where there are gaps. This may just be your starting point for a tidy ecommerce business.

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