Need to situate your business in an online market place
Though having a website is still very important for many businesses but an online marketplace is a more vital essentiality for businesses that want higher turnovers. Online marketplaces are just like most marketplaces located physically in a place. The essential feature about a marketplace is that different products from different companies or individuals are offered for sale. So, buyers that come in to buy clothes for instance can also get to buy accessories such as wristwatches, shoes, bags, perfumes or other things they want. Some markets even have sections for foodstuffs or groceries.
The same kinds of marketplace opportunities are now being offered online. Prospective buyers simply go online to a market place of their choice and order for goods and services which are then delivered to them. One important feature of an online marketplace is that the promoters of the site normally provide the online or offline payment options for the buyers and/or delivery services. The promoters of the site then pay the business or individual providing the product or service. But some sites allow the buyers to pay direct to the businesses or individuals providing the product or service.
About the biggest and most popular online marketplace is amazon.com which offers virtually all kinds of products for sale to any buyer anywhere in the world. Just as some physical markets are for specialised products and services, some online markets are also specialised. But payment options have over the years, often posed great challenges to people in Nigeria seeking to make online purchases. The emergence of online marketplaces, operating in Nigeria in recent times has addressed these payment challenges to a great extent.
Some very popular online marketplaces with strong presence in Nigeria include Jumia, Konga and VConnect. Other online marketplaces are Kaymu.com.ng, storefront.com.ng, webcrawler.com. Some banks such as GTBank and First Bank now have online marketplaces for businesses to enlist. Many Businesses Membership Organisations (BMOs) have also launched online marketplaces for their member businesses. Some individual organisations are also setting up online marketplaces, most of these are free but some collect token fees for listing.
Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter also offer opportunities for online marketing in addition to entertainment, information sharing and relationship building. Victoria Praise Abraham, founder of Vic-Abraham Media Nigeria Limited says, “I market my self-published books, portraits, posters, stickers and so on through Facebook and arrange for delivery within and outside the country when I get a buyer.”
According to experts, the emergence of the social media has paved way for many entrepreneurs and organisations to build their business at their own convenience. These entrepreneurs, with or without a physical office, are able to reach their target audience easily at anytime and at little or no fee at all and thereby grow their businesses. Though some online marketplaces were started solely for business transactions, in very recent times, taking a cue from Facebook with a monthly average of about 1.2 billion active users, many of these online marketplaces have also incorporated social media interactions which draw higher traffic. Some buyers initially just go to some sites simply for social interactions but end up getting interested in goods and services of businesses listed on the site. But some sites are still mainly online marketplaces.
For instance, the Jumia marketplace provides Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) the opportunity to give visibility to their businesses so they can reach larger audience and target their potential customers directly.
Most of these online marketplaces provide part time business operators with or without registered businesses the opportunity of marketing their businesses. The advantage of online marketplaces over the singular business website is that the business operator/website owner need not expend resources marketing the site. The promoters of the online marketplace do the marketing of the site and get revenue from paid adverts on the site and/or commissions from payment solutions they provide for the businesses that make sales.
OLUYINKA ALAWODE