Alerzo provides retailers working capital to keep stores running, drive financial inclusion – CEO

Adewale Opaleye, the founder of Alerzo, a leading B2B e-commerce company, has disclosed that the e-commerce company is leveraging its cashless payment and lending platform – Alerzopay, to provide retailers, regardless of their economic situations, with working capital to keep their stores running and drive financial inclusion to the excluded informal retailers.

According to him, the integration of Alerzopay and the use of the POS machines in their customers’ businesses improve their overall profit margins, as retailers receive commissions for each transaction carried out on the platform.

He stated that with the advanced POS terminals that run on Alerzopay platform, retailers can act as agents: processing customer deposits and withdrawals to purchase goods or use as spending cash and process value added services such as utility bill payments, and others.

Opaleye states further that the beauty of e-commerce platforms lies in its power to leverage technology to create opportunities for businesses including micro retail outlets as well as power them with digital solutions to improve and increase their efficiency.

He stated that with an array of Alerzo’s tech-driven digital solutions, retailers can order and make payment for goods as well as restock online or offline through USSD. “On our Alerzoshop retail app, we have a vast assortment available to our customers to choose from, and we offer free delivery in all the over 13 cities we’re currently operational. We change the landscape for them (retailers) through on time delivery,” Opaleye stated.

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Following the data from the National Bureau of Statistics as well as the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), that Micro and Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) account for about 96 percent of registered Nigerian businesses that employs about 75 percent of the national labour force, and contributes about 48 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it is clear that the Micro and Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) form the bedrock of the economy.

Speaking further on the contribution of B2B businesses to the economy, Opaleye states that it is worthy to note that e-commerce platforms operators in Nigeria are in no little way contributing to the promotion of MSMEs, as Alerzo, a leading e-commerce platform in Nigeria is making strides in empowering retail business owners with its various innovations including loan provisions.

According to Opaleye, e-commerce platforms also provide warehousing and fulfillment solutions to suppliers while also delivering ordered goods at free cost to retailers. For example, he said Alerzo has been providing free delivery services to retailers for over two years.

“For the past two years, we have delivered to informal retailers at no cost. With our delivery services, retailers save time, energy, and resources that they would have otherwise expended in restocking. These benefits have resulted in 85 percent of our retailers reducing their two to four times a week restock trips to zero,” he disclosed.