The electronic commerce industry is one of the largest in the world today. In the African market, especially Nigeria, it has made a major statement since its mainstream entry in 2012.
Within a short time of the Nigerian e-commerce rave, many e-commerce businesses have sprung up. From online stores to escrow services, domain name brokers, and much more, the industry keeps growing at an unprecedented pace.
If you’re looking at getting into the e-commerce industry and becoming a major player in its early stages, here are 10 top eCommerce business ideas and opportunities in Nigeria you can be a part of:
See Also: Top 10 Profitable Online Business Ideas In Nigeria
1). Run An Online Store:
Since the aggressive entry of Jumia and Konga in the Nigerian online shopping space, many business savvy individuals have seen the potentials that running an online store holds. While these two major companies may yet be able to turn a profit, they’ve in their own way, created online platforms people could leverage on to generate a modest income, depending on what they want to sell.
By setting up an online store at your own url (e.g www.example.com), and also creating marketplace stores on various online marketplaces like Jumia & Konga (e.g konga.com/example), you can well on start your e-commerce journey.
Starting from an online marketplace will help you grow your inventory while you try to figure out what works and doesn’t on your own standalone store. As your leverage on the marketplace platforms teaches you what sells online and not, you can be certain you would have grown your inventory to a substantial sum.
Taking advantage of the online shopping spirit by selling extremely affordable items through an online marketplace and your own personal online store can get you started in the e-commerce sphere.
See Also: How To Start An E-Commerce Business In Nigeria: The Comprehensive Cost
2). Sell Event Tickets Online:
Online event ticketing in Nigeria officially took off on a popular stance with the launch of online ticketing platforms like Afritickets, Naijaticketshop, Tripican, and more, in the year 2012. While the sales of online tickets in Nigeria is already mainstream, in countries in Europe and America, the industry has exploded beyond limits with extra successful ticketing companies like Fandango, raking in millions of dollars monthly.
Starting an online ticketing company selling cheap concert tickets, movie tickets, or event tickets, is a great eCommerce business idea to take advantage of. By offering people a cheaper and more convenient incentive to buy tickets online, you can attempt to grow a successful online business.
3). Domain Name Brokerage:
Domain brokers pretty much buy domains at a certain price, and eventually resell to someone who desperately needs that domain name sometime in the future, for a weigh higher price than the original value. E.g purchasing a domain at $2 and eventually reselling it at $6,000.
On the internet, the domain name brokerage business is a large industry. Hundreds of thousands of people are into the business by offering the domains they bought for sale, through online auctions sites like Godaddy’s auction corner.
By purchasing intelligent dictionary worded domains and reselling at a higher fee sometime in the future, you can earn thousands of dollars at wide intervals as just a domain broker.
See Also: 6 Legitimate Ways To Make Money Online From Home
4). Online Escrow Service:
An escrow service is a solution where an intermediary mediates a transaction between two parties by holding on to the funds paid by one, and transferring the eventual fund to the party that offers the product or service if the exchange holds true. An example is an online payment platform like Paypal. By making a payment though it, Paypal eventually forwards the value of the transaction to the party offering the product or service.
With the proliferation of several online escrow services springing up daily, and the number of Nigeria’s “active” internet users exceeding 1 million, the market remains under-tapped.
If you have the funds to push your brand to the right scale, running an online escrow service is a great eCommerce business idea to venture into.
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5). eBook Publishing:
eBooks are becoming the more standardized way to gain information on a certain subject or two, of interest. With thousands of people downloading and selling ebooks addressing certain niches like programming, social psychology, business, and more, writing a highly valuable eBook to sell through online book publishers like Amazon is a lucrative eCommerce business idea to start up.
See Also: How To Make Money Online In 5 Realistic Ways
6). Forex Trading:
According to wikipedia, the forex market is “a global decentralized market for the trading of currencies. This includes all aspects of buying, selling and exchanging currencies at current or determined prices.”
Forex trading is basically carried out by traders who are constantly on the forex market, usually through a forex application. They try to ascertain the direction the price of a currency will follow and make a trade to purchase or sell that currency.
People make money through forex trading from the fall or rise of a currency on the forex market, and this can be done from anywhere in the world.
Trading forex requires a special education, which covers full techniques to constantly monitor the exchange rate of a certain currency or currency groups. If you have problems pulling through the course, you could either use a trading company for your forex business or make use of a highly-recommended robot.
7). Researching And Selling Information Online:
People who sell information online are infopreneurs, and what they basically do is to turn words into income in several innovative ways.
Information products can be e-books, audio recordings, or digital video recordings. They are basically a person’s intellectual property which is then stored in a digital format and is suitable for sale on the internet from any part of the world.
By creating digital contents for sale based on a certain skill set or knowledge you have, you can start selling information products online.
See Also: The Only 3 Things You Need To Know When Starting An Online Business In Africa
8). Personal Shopper:
Personal shoppers are high fashion individuals majorly domiciled on Instagram. They regularly post stunning fashionable photos of themselves online, so they can build a large follower base that admires what they wear and wonder where they purchase.
These individuals leverage their social networks to sell their personal shopping services to their fan base who already trust them enough, based on their fashion profiles.
As a personal shopper, you can manage the wardrobes of several elite individuals subsequently, month-in month-out.
9). E-Commerce Consulting:
If you have previously ran an eCommerce business or worked in an eCommerce startup with a direct influence, you can startup an eCommerce consulting business that provides professional eCommerce advise and services to small and medium sized eCommerce companies.
eCommerce consulting services is a specialised field, and one that is driven by experience. Before you consider consulting for an eCommerce company, ensure y0u first have a great experience and verifiable track record in the field.
See Also: Stop Guessing! Here Are 10 E-Commerce Marketing Strategies That Work
10). Classified Sites:
Classified websites in Nigeria like OLX, Jiji, Efritin, and also successful versions in America like Craigslist, provides an environment for people to buy and sell almost anything through the most basic interface possible. They enable you to view an item and immediately contact the seller requesting for that item.
The success of these classified sites have motivated people with deep pockets to invest in and start up their own versions. Since people are looking for every possible way to sell their items online, when new classified site ad campaigns go live, they get popular quickly.
If you have deep pockets, a great team, and a target niche you want to focus on, you can startup your own classified site.
What are your thoughts on these 10 e-commerce business ideas and opportunities in Nigeria? Let me know by leaving a comment below.
e-commerce has come to stay in Nigeria, nice write up…
Thank you for the contribution.
Good job Mr Stan. for the classified sites u kept saying deep pockets. how do u mean. how much do u think i will cost to set up such sites. just me a range. thanks
Hi Wise,
Classified sites require a lot of money to scale, and so remain largely unprofitable for many years.
To survive in that industry, you’d need deep pockets to get the word out really wide about your classified site.
To scale ultimately, you may be required to spend over a million dollars, which may still amount to absolutely nothing.
In summary, classified sites are for people with deep pockets, long-term patience, and an exceptional execution.
Thank you for asking.
Hey Nice Blog !!!! I like it Great Information you have shared Thanks for sharing
Thank you for the comment, Saini.
Insightful!✊?
Thank you for reading.
Always thanks sir
Thank you for reading, Adeniyi.
I will like to give forex trading a try.
Thank you for the comment, Festus.
I’d advise you first undergo training first and trade with a demo account for a few months before you use real money.
Thank you.
Insightful info and very thought provoking ones too. The e-book publishing and e-commerce consulting caught my interest though.
What type of skill set, experience and/or training do I need to be an e-marketing consultant sir?
Thanks
Thank you for reading, Emmanuel.
You can learn all you can about digital marketing and implement along the way to be truly skilled at it.
dear stan i am intersted to run an onlie store how do i go about it, to be succesful in it.