Since its introduction in the 1990s, the ecommerce industry has yet to stop growing. Experts predict that ecommerce or online retail sales in the world will hit over $2,6 trillion in 2019, up from $996.8 billion just two years prior.
E-commerce industry analysis shows that evolving technologies and customer expectations will lead to retail innovations across the board, from online-only brands to retail giants.
In this vein, young and brilliant CEO of Jonliz Investments, Prince Olaniyi Karonwi speaks about how his new indigenous online market Jonlizmarket.com is moving beyond experiential marketing and into experimental and putting Nigerian e-commerce on the part of growth that can boost the economy
“This type of engagement enables the convenience that the customers have come to expect from our brand. Our customer prefers conversational interaction — we’re committed to a transaction process that eliminates all unnecessary forms of exploitation of either buyer or vendors from our onlie store,” he said.
Read excerps..
My name is Olaniyi Karonwi. I am from Ogun state, Abeokuta precisely I have been into e-commerce business for quite some time, we started way back in 2009. We moved out of Nigeria and allowed the platform hibernate because we couldn’t be in the Benin Republic and operate the platform in Nigeria. But over time, I have followed up on existing commerce companies. The way they handle their businesses in Nigeria and I see more of exploitation from them.
They are exploiting Nigerians because when you have a platform where vendors can make sales and buys can shop from the comfort of their homes or offices, that comfort should be deep. Not in a way of exploiting the majority. So this was what I have overtime understudied while in the Benin Republic. Though in the Benin Republic we are not doing E-commerce, we were running a restaurant bar and entertainment segment, the Jonliz records is a label under the Jonliz Benin Republic. And we were doing fine back there.
So we just wanted to come back because of the passion I have for E-commerce. I returned to Nigeria in 2018 and established Jonliz.ng, which is, of course, a general classified platform but by popular demand, people called in and asked if we sell TV, Kitchen utensils and stuff. Some of them even request we buy from vendors and they will get it through us and pay us.
So what we did in November 2018 last year was quite different from what the masses are requesting from us. They actually want a platform that will make buying and selling so convenient for people. So I started building a multivendor platform which is Jonlizmarket.com.
Normally it’s a project that shouldn’t take me like six-seven months, but because of the urgency in giving birth to it and nurturing it, it took me sleepless nights and in two months we were able to launch Jonlizmarket.com in early February in 2019. So we have been test running, to see if we could sustain because doing business in Nigeria without a backup of banks or some godfathers is quite challenging, but to God be the glory, Jonliz is running as it is. We don’t have finance from banks, we just make things happen from within the organization and what we have. For about 3 months we have been test running and we actually discovered that, yes, we could sustain this because we have had meeting with series of companies who walk up to us and say, what about sustainability?
We told them we will always do the best we can because I saw more of a challenge in doing something you have known in depth knowledge about but in this case, I am a web master, I am the head of operation so to speak. So, other employees are working under my auspices, so far so good we are doing fine, we have a couple of vendors on our platform presently and we have been taking orders and making deliveries and we hope to grow it in the next 3 to five years. Even though we know it’s going to be quite challenging because we are not going to run to any bank for sponsorship. Our platform is not the type that exploits the vendors in the guise of commission sharing. We don’t take a commission from you as a vendor. Our platform creates a relationship between vendors and the company, we are like an online landlord. We lease a space out to you for a period of 90 days. You could pay N5,000, N15,000, N39,000 and N69,000 depending on the size of the shop you want to rent from and online store to sell. So. For 90 days, whatever a vendor is selling will be his entire earning. We don’t collect a dime from it.
For example, subscribe to a N5,000 advertising package and you sell N2 million, your two million comes to you. We don’t take a dime from you, as against what the existing e-commerce platforms are doing over time. They take 8%,10% of your profit. That is too much. If you sell one million and somebody is taking 10% out of it, that’s a lot. How much profits are you making from those products.. so, we design our platform in a way that, you subscribe to a package, we push your product out. And whatever you sell, we remit the money to you. There are products that are eligible for return policy and there are those that are not applicable to return policy.
If for example you have a product that is not eligible for a refund policy, we make your payment immediately before the dispatch leaves your shop. Once the dispatch man is there to pick the product, we make your payment on agreement that out quality control is going to check the product, once it os okay, we are good, but if it is defective, we bring it back and you replace. So, it is very easy for every one of us to do our business on Jonlizmarket.com.
We are growing it and we hope to continue to grow it for the benefit of Nigeria as a whole because I see a better tomorrow for the e-commerce platform in Nigeria because it has an impact on the economy of the country, when you are selling and you having 100% on whatever you are selling on our platform, we don’t take any percentage in any guise/
So, you rent the store from us, and we will work hard to make sure that the product sells on our platform because there is an agreement between us.
You can visit the site and have a feel of the user-friendly features and effective customer service delivery
@ www.jonlizmarket.com
