You have your product, or maybe you have even opened an Instagram page, taken a few pictures, and told your friends that you are finally starting that business.

Your next concern is: where exactly are people supposed to buy from you?

The good thing is that you don’t necessarily need to spend a lot of money building a complicated website before you can start selling online in Nigeria.

So, if you are trying to figure out the best ecommerce platform in Nigeria, here are 9 options worth looking at.

If you are thinking beyond, “I want somewhere people can see my products and pay me,” and you are trying to build an actual brand, Shopify is one of the first platforms to consider.

It makes a lot of sense, especially if you are in beauty, fashion, lifestyle or consumer goods and you eventually want to reach customers outside Nigeria.

You can create your own branded store, organise products, run discounts, track orders, connect marketing tools, and gradually add more functionality as the business grows.

If you want to set up or build your Shopify store properly, you can reach out to the OATS Africa team and have the technical side handled for you.

Let us say you are just starting, and you want somewhere you can sell without immediately adding another monthly subscription to your expenses.

Paystack Storefront is one of the easiest places to begin.

You can create a simple storefront, add products, collect customer information, and receive payments without first paying for a full e-commerce website.

It will not give you the same amount of design freedom as Shopify, but sometimes you do not need all of that on day one.

You just need somewhere people can see your products and pay.

If that sounds like where you are right now, you can create a Paystack Storefront here.

A lot of Nigerian businesses start the same way.

Instagram page.

“DM to order.”

WhatsApp number in the bio.

And for your first few customers, that works perfectly.

The problem starts when you have ten people asking for prices, someone has paid, but you cannot remember which conversation it was, and you are trying to figure out what is still in stock.

That is the stage where Bumpa comes in.

It helps small businesses organise products, orders, customers, and sales while still fitting naturally into the way many Nigerian businesses already sell.

If this sounds like your current setup, you can open a Bumpa account here.

Vendda becomes an interesting choice when your business is not just online.

Maybe you have a beauty shop in Lekki but also receive Instagram orders. Or perhaps you run a supermarket, restaurant, or physical retail store and want your online and offline sales to work together.

That is the kind of problem Vendda is trying to solve.

It combines e-commerce with retail tools, including POS functionality, which makes it more suitable for businesses that have customers walking through the door as well as customers ordering online.

If that sounds like your kind of business, you can see how Vendda works for Nigerian retailers here.

With Shopify, Bumpa, or Vendda, you are largely responsible for bringing people to your store.

Jumia is a little different because people are already there looking for things to buy.

That makes it useful if you are selling products people actively search for, such as skincare, electronics, fashion, household items, and accessories.

The downside is that you are sitting beside plenty of other sellers competing for the same customers.

So rather than thinking of Jumia as your entire online business, it may be better to see it as another place where customers can discover you.

If you would like to explore that route, you can start selling through Jumia’s marketplace here.

WooCommerce is for the person who says:

“I want my website to work exactly the way I want it to.”

You can customise the store heavily, choose your hosting, install different plugins, and connect Nigerian payment options.

That freedom is great, but somebody still has to manage all of it.

So if words like hosting, plugins, WordPress updates, and website maintenance already sound exhausting, this probably is not where we would advise you to begin.

If you already have technical help and want more control, you can explore WooCommerce here.

Selling food online is a slightly different game.

For a restaurant, bakery, meal vendor, or supermarket, having your own website is not always enough. You also want to be somewhere customers are already looking for food or everyday items.

That is why platforms like Chowdeck and Glovo can be useful.

You are not just getting somewhere to collect orders. You are putting your business in front of people who are already ready to buy.

If you run a food or retail business, you can see how to become a Chowdeck vendor here or explore Glovo for businesses here.

If what you are selling is an ebook, course, template, event ticket or another product connected to your audience, Selar is probably one of the first platforms you should consider from this list.

It is particularly popular with creators because you can put a product online quickly and simply send people the link.

You can also sell physical products, although we would not necessarily recommend Selar first for a large beauty or fashion catalogue.

If you are a creator trying to start selling, you can open your Selar store here.

If everything we have mentioned so far feels too complicated for the level your business is at right now, good old Instagram and WhatsApp are still perfectly fine places to start.

You can post your products on Instagram, move interested customers to WhatsApp, and complete orders directly there.

Features such as automated messages on WhatsApp Business can also help you respond to customers even when you are not actively using the app.

It may not be the most sophisticated system, but if you are still testing your business, it can work.

With so many options available now, our advice is simple: choose the platform that makes the most sense for your type of business and the way your customers already shop.

If you sell ebooks or courses, it probably makes more sense to be on Selar than Shopify.

If you run a fashion or beauty business, Bumpa or Shopify will usually make more sense than Chowdeck.

And if you run a restaurant, forcing customers to visit a complicated ecommerce website when they already use Chowdeck or Glovo may not be the smartest approach.

Start with what fits your business now. You can always move to something more advanced as you grow.

There is no single answer for every business. Shopify is strong for building a dedicated ecommerce brand, while Bumpa and Vendda are useful for locally focused businesses. 

Paystack Storefront is one of the easiest free options for Nigerian businesses that want to put products online and start accepting payments without paying for a full ecommerce website.

For a new beauty business, Bumpa or Paystack Storefront may be enough. For a beauty brand that wants a more premium website and room to scale, Shopify is worth considering.

For restaurants and food vendors, Chowdeck and Glovo are strong options because customers can discover businesses and order food directly through the platforms.

Till next time,

Team Thrive

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