A new era was marked on n Thursday, as the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) and Konga.com, Nigeria’s largest online marketplace, announced a partnership for the use of NIPOST post offices as pick up locations for Konga orders.
The UNILAG collection centre is the first in a series of collaborations by the two parties to address logistics and delivery issues experienced by eCommerce operators in Nigeria.
These include a shortage of secure and conveniently located places where customers can pick-up their purchases, and also return items that do not meet up to their expectations.
Security and convenience are particularly important for customers living in shared accommodation such as hostels in tertiary institutions.
Such customers need to know that the items they have purchased are safe and waiting to be collected at a place that is easy to reach.
For eCommerce operators delivering items to people living in these institutions can be time consuming and expensive, such clients are often moving between different locations within the campus and several attempts at delivery are usually required.
The partnership to establish collection centres in tertiary locations is therefore a welcome development for both customers and e-tailers; and will result in the roll-out of a total of 47 collection centres nationwide over a period of two months.
Tertiary institutions provide a captive and sizeable market of consumers that are digitally savvy and comfortable with buying online.
These institutions are also located in, or close to bustling residential areas and centres of commercial activity.
The new collection centres will therefore serve not only students but a broad spectrum of the population including the larger academic, business and social community in and around the campus.
Remarking on the launch of the partnership between NIPOST and Konga, Dr (Mrs) Omobola Johnson, minister of Communication Technology, reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to transforming NIPOST into a viable, socially conscious yet profit-orientated entity.
The minister represented by Dr. Abiodun Jagun, her special assistant on Policy said, “the first Post office in Nigeria was established over 160 years ago and NIPOST has been fulfilling its mandate of providing universal access to postal services ever since. Furthermore, the Post office has grown to become the most extensive retail network in Nigeria. It is only logical that the eCommerce industry leverage the experience and facilities of NIPOST to provide secure and more convenient services to their customers.”
“Through this partnership, NIPOST will be contributing its own share to supporting the growth of retail businesses in Nigeria.”
Mallam Mori Baba, post master general (PMG) of NIPOST, represented by the Deputy Post Master General (DPMG) Osadolor I.P Eboigbodin further expressed his anticipation for more partnerships with Konga “To our partners Konga, it is our hope that this is just the beginning of greater things to happen between us” he said. This is also in line with NIPOST’s goal of creating quality partnerships and customer base for its services.
Konga.com has revolutionized the landscape of trade in Nigeria. Since opening up Konga Marketplace to small and medium-size businesses via its SellerHQ marketplace in 2014, more than 10,000 traders have registered on the site.
Konga’s revenue grew 450% from 2013 to 2014, the company also launched its private logistics company KExpress last year, to augment the delivery of its products, previously solely handled by third party courier companies.
Wale Adisa, director of Fulfillment Operations for Konga, threw more light on partnership. “Konga has always pioneered new strategies to further the growth of Trade and Commerce in Nigeria. To achieve our vision, Konga believes in the power of strategic partnerships with other reputable organizations such as NIPOST. With this move, we are leveraging on NIPOST’s incredible reach of about 5,000 locations across the country. We are also giving our customers more flexibility to choose the shopping options most convenient to them”.
The online retail giant’s goal is to have a minimum of 50,000 sellers registered on its platform by the end of 2015.