Online shopping: Mobile remains king in Nigeria, says new study

Nigerian consumers are increasingly comfortable with online shopping, both from local retailers and foreign online stores and are some of the world’s most prolific users of mobile devices to do shopping. This is according to a new study conducted in Nigeria by Ipsos, a global market research company, on behalf of electronic payment provider, PayPal. According to findings from the research, Nigeria is home to some of the keenest mobile shoppers on the African continent, and is also the third largest mobile commerce market in terms of the incidence of mobile shoppers amongst the countries that participated in the research. Consumers shopping Nigeria surpassed the 47 per cent global average across the 29 markets surveyed with 72 per cent of online consumers shopping on a smartphone. China and India led with 86 per cent and 82 per cent respectively, in terms of incidence of shopping via smartphone. According to the study, “A large majority of consumers pick smartphones to shop online both when shopping cross-border and locally in Nigeria. In terms of the value of this spend, consumers estimate that mobile shopping accounts for 38 per cent of their total online spend, and 36 per cent of cross-border purchases.” The study further said that this trend is likely to continue as mobile spend is forecast to increase by 39 per cent to N78.3 billion in 2016, and by 31 per cent to N102.2 billion by the end of 2017, from N56.2 billion in 2015. Speaking on the research, PayPal’s General Manager Africa and Israel, Efi Dahan said: “Nigerian online shoppers have realised that the world is their shopping mall when it comes to buying what they need and want. They are no longer limited to what they can buy domestically, and are confidently scouring the globe for great deals, more choices, high quality and premier brands. Essential shopping tool And, they are doing so wherever and whenever they want to, using their mobile devices as an essential shopping tool.” On the online spending trends in Nigeria, the survey noted that, “Overall, online shopping in Nigeria is growing rapidly with six out of ten Internet users in Nigeria shopping online in the 12-month period the survey covered. Total online spend is predicted to increase from N128.1 billion in 2015 to N172 billion in 2016, up by 34 per cent from the previous year. This growth continues to N217.7 billion in 2017, about 27 per cent more than in 2016.” The research also showed that, “70 per cent of Nigerian online shoppers indicated that they had purchased on international websites in the past 12 months, 6 per cent of which shopped online only internationally. Meanwhile, just a quarter of the online shoppers, 30 per cent, exclusively shopped locally online.”