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Can I make money online in Nigeria? Of course you can, and you should. There are many ways of making money online in Nigeria and running a successful online business from home, one of which is dropshipping.
Blogging and freelancing are other popular means Nigerians are making money online, whether via Fiverr, Upwork or running their independent blogs or agencies.
Similarly, internet marketing gurus bombard our inbox with all kinds of mini-importation courses, some of which have given rise to new business successes and failures alike.
The Bad News
Some of these business failures may be attributable to factors like shortage of reliable statistics for long-term planning, poor fiscal frameworks, lack of access to funding, zero or little entrepreneurial support and training, constantly changing policies, the “perpetual” power problem (PPP) and so on.
These things affect not just entrepreneurs but the entire nation at large.
The Good News.
With dropshipping entrepreneurs are automatically able to overcome a lot of these challenges by default.
In this article I’ll be sharing this proven business model called dropshipping and sharing 9 reasons why it is a good business idea in Nigeria and for Nigerians like you.
But first,
Source: Oberlo
What is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping enables you operate a retail business like Jumia or Konga without needing to buy or own inventory or stock.
Here’s how it works:
- Online shoppers visit your e-store, place an order and pay you.
- You take out your profit and place their orders with your supplier or manufacturer at a cheaper rate.
- Your supplier or manufacturer packs and ships the order to your customers, and in some cases handles returns on your behalf, based on agreement
Sounds great right? Yeah.
The following paragraphs outline 9 reasons why you should try dropshipping in Nigeria.
9 Reasons to Try Dropshipping In Nigeria
-
Low Startup Capital
Which business can I start with N100,000 is a popular question with people looking to start a business in Nigeria.
For many, how to raise startup capital is a major challenge. With unemployment and interest rates at double digits, and nearly unattainable conditions for collateral, the startup ecosystem is already toxic to many a new business.
Similarly, many should-be entrepreneurs are still stuck at low satisfaction, poor paying jobs for lack of startup capital to start their dream business.
However, you can start dropshipping with little to no cost, just minimal investments in the right tools.
Below are
Some of the Basic Tools You’ll Need to Start Dropshipping:
These include
-PC, laptop or good smartphone
– Internet access
– A good platform like Shopify (currently hosting over 500,000 e-stores in 175 countries), which starts at $29/mo, approx N10,440 at N360/$.
With these basic tools and the right resources you can start growing your dropshipping business from $0 to $XYZ.
Also,
-
Easy Setup
You need zero coding skills to setup your dropshipping store on Shopify for instance. This saves you cost of hiring a developer or programmer.
It’s so easy to set up a Shopify store in just a few short minutes. This plug and play platform makes ecommerce store setup a breeze.
You can also customize your store with free themes, apps and plugins. For this you can draw inspiration from other stores.
And then
-
Automation
Perhaps this is the best part of all, the ability to completely automate your dropshipping business.
This means major store maintenance functions are done for you, so you can face marketing.
Apps like Oberlo and some others help you automate and sync functions like pricing, inventory levels, order management etc.
This is also a
-
One Man Business
You can run dropshipping as a one man business and then scale with growth. This means you may not require the services of a professional HR consultant, neither will you need to worry about staff salaries just yet.
This will help you focus and master the ins and outs of your business before onboarding new hires.
With time you can outsource some aspects of your work or hire remote teams to help, while you focus on your marketing.
Which means no
-
Office Rent
Since you’ll be working from home you save on office rent and can instead invest it in other areas of your dropshipping business like marketing or continuous learning.
You also save on transportation and the stress of being caught up in Lagos traffic for instance.
You can always log into your beautifully designed Shopify dashboard to see how your store is performing per time.
And you can
-
Work From Anywhere
Not only can you work from home, dropshipping is a location independent business, you can run it from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection.
Now you can travel to the East to spend some quality time with your friends and extended family, all the while keeping an eye on your business.
With dropshipping, you actually own a mobile business that can allow you travel the world.
And Nigeria is a,
-
Large Market
With over 180 million people and counting, Nigeria is a huge market for discerning business persons.
The many different tribes, tongues, cultures and traditions also present immense opportunities to market franchise, goods and products of all sorts that people actually need.
Being a yet heavily import-dependent economy also means Nigerians have a large craving for imported goods.
Which brings us to
-
Cross Border Opportunities
As earlier stated, dropshipping is an online business which means you can sell to any part of the world.
This gives you the opportunity of selling to a global marketplace.
However, care must be taken and adequate research carried out before importing or exporting certain goods that may contravene international trade laws and best practices.
Finally,
-
Profit Potential
With dropshipping business you can easily make a lot more than the current minimum wage of N18,000 a month, and that with minimal investment.
Once you pick a profitable niche, master social marketing, demonstrate excellent customer service, constant value addition via content marketing for instance, you will better position your dropshipping business for success.
A number of factors can also affect profit margin like competition, retail vs wholesale purchase, exchange rates etc.
Conclusion:
Dropshipping offers endless opportunities like a global market and infinite product niches to pick from.
Its low entry barrier also make it an attractive option for cost conscious entrepreneurs or workers looking to start a side hustle as an extra source of income or as a transition to fulltime entrepreneurship.
AUTHOR BIO
Amos Onwukwe is an AWAI trained eCommerce B2B/B2C Copywriter featured in eCommerce Nation, eCommerce Insights, Understanding Ecommerce, Floship, Huffington Post, among others.
Website: http://www.hireme2writeit.com
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