Experts in the retail industry have urged retailers, manufacturers and service sector businesses to leverage the Omni-Channel approach (offline and online channels) in order to expand customer base, stay competitive and be sustainable.
This nugget was made at Lagos Business School’s Africa Retail Academy virtual conference held on Saturday. The event, themed ‘Integrating Africa’s Offline and Online Retail Channels had local and international experts who gave insights into the future of Africa’s e-commerce as consumer behaviour evolves.
Speaking at the panel session, Dave Omoregie, VP Technology Operations and Supply Chain, Konga Online Shopping Ltd said the future is in the Omni-Channel approach which does not look at the channels in segments but in the entirety.
“Players need to understand that if they want to drive a sustainable business, they must be available in all channels because their customers want to be able to reach out to them no matter the channel they operate,” Omoregie said.
He added that “If there is some traction on WhatsApp, Instagram or Facebook, you should be available. So your positioning has a lot to do with what the future will look like because there is some technology that drives online.”
Omnichannel is a business model that aims to provide a seamless shopping experience on multiple retail channels, including brick-and-mortar stores, online websites, mobile apps, radio, TV, physical catalogs, etc.
Some of the advantages are that it helps to retain more customers, increases revenue, promotes more satisfied customers, increases operational efficiency, and improves inventory turnover
“I think a person with a brick and mortar store needs to start thinking about how to integrate them together. My view is that an integrated model will probably work better,” Sameul Ejeh, founder/ CEO, Grocery Bazaar Supermarket Nigeria advised.
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Nigeria’s fast-growing youth population and increased smartphone penetration create an opportunity for the growth of E-commerce.
But an array of challenges such as poor internet infrastructure, increasing losses, preference for cash transactions, low literacy level, cybercrimes, and lack of trust, fake products and poor services limited its growth.
But the COVID-19 pandemic has fast-tracked the growth of E-commerce as a report by International Trade Organisation predicts that the industry will reach $75 billion in revenues per annum by 2025 from the current $12 billion
Vanessa Burgal, marketing faculty, Lagos Business School noted that it is really important for small and big retailers to have a very good digital and physical strategy that is integrated and homogeneous.
“Before the pandemic, e-commercial for instance in South Africa was about two percent of retail but now it is already four percent. Although it is small, it is growing very fast,” Burgal added.
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