Deep Dive Into Social Media
- clinton nwordu
- Sep 24, 2020
- 13 min read
Updated: Nov 9, 2020
Almost all human activities on earth have been revolutionized and have witnessed tremendous change from its conventional process owing to advancement in social media (internet) in this twenty first century. One of the human activities greatly influenced in this era is the mode of shopping, marketing, advertising and communication.
These video links below will be a stepping-stone for our journey into the world of online course with Google Digital Garage on "The Fundamentals of Digital Marketing" and a deep dive into the world of social media, feel relaxed and enjoy every bit of the content.
Video contents includes
1. The online opportunity
2. Your first steps in online success
3. Build your web presence
4. Plan your online business strategy
5. Get stated with search
6. Get discovered with search
7. Make search work for you
8. Be noticed with search ads
9. Improve your search campaigns
10. Get noticed locally
11. Help people nearby find you online
12. Get noticed with social media
13. Deep dive into social media
14. Discover the possibilities of mobile
15. Make mobile work for you
16. Get started with content marketing
17. Connect through email
18. Advertise on other websites
19. Deep dive into display advertising
20. Make the most of video
21. Get started with analytics
22. Find success with analytics
23. Turn data into insights
24. Build your online shop
25. Sell more online
26. Expand internationally
Online Shopping in Nigeria
Online shopping was invented in 1979 by an English entrepreneur called Michael Alderich. Online shopping and e-commerce are the biggest technological revolution which has occurred in Nigeria since the telecommunication revolution which brought the Global system for mobile communications (G.S.M) in August, 2001.
The growth of online shopping in Nigeria has basically been driven by pocket of internet entrepreneurs who ventured into the retail sector, leveraging the advantages offered by technology. This experimentation with online shopping has driven economic growth to unprecedented level for the past few years, creating enormous wealth and leading to employment generation in the technology sector.
Online shopping began in Nigeria way back in 2005, when Debonair publishing limited, which is one of the pioneer online shops in Nigeria, was established in Lagos with the aim of publishing cheaper, original and accessible books. This was followed by the establishment of Olx in 2010 which serve as a link between buyers and sellers of various brands, including cars and other office and household equipment.
Other online shops began to spring up in various parts of Nigeria. Some of these online shops include Jouani established in 2011, Jumia, Konga and Kara.com. All founded in 2012. Currently, there are hundreds of online shops in Nigeria with the following as successful and popular ones: Jumia, Konga, Jiji and Olx which seem to be going into oblivion at the moment.
Unlike in the past when marketing and business transactions were conducted via interpersonal (face to face) communication, the trend has shifted to online marketing – where people buy and sell through the internet especially the World Wide Web. The term which is referred to as “online shopping” is one of the numerous gifts of technology that enables individuals to carry out all sorts of business activities with relative ease and comfort. Online shopping is a form of e-commerce i.e. internet shopping, whereby consumers buy goods and services directly from a seller over the internet. This online shopping is done through an online shop, e-store, e-shop and there are online shops like, Payporte, Jumia, Konga, Jiji, Olx, etc.
Online shopping has grown very fast because of many advantages associated with buying on internet such as lower transaction and search cost as compared to other types of shopping. Because of the benefit of online shopping, consumers do not stress themselves going too far places to purchase goods. They can purchase their goods at home or from anywhere with just a click on internet and the goods will be delivered at the door post i.e. internet shopping has experienced rapid growth since the early years. Consumers all over the world shop online because it is convenient, easy and faster to purchase goods. ACNielsen (2007) and Bhatti (2004) reveal that “more than 627 million people in the world have shopped online” (p.21).
The effectiveness of online shopping can be measured by its popularity among consumers who preferred to get their products online with ease. This new pattern of shopping has brought a great number and wide range of merchandise to consumers. Across the globe, the most popular gems purchased on the internet are books (34%), followed by videos, DVDs, games (22%), airline tickets, reservations (21%) and clothing/accessories, shoes (20%).
Online shopping is used as a medium for communication and electronic commerce, it is to increase or improve in value, quality and attractiveness of delivering customer benefits and better satisfaction, that is why online shopping is more convenient and day by day increasing its popularity.
Some internet users seem to be averse to online shopping because of some associated problems such as credit-fraud, lack of privacy, non-delivery risk, lack of guarantee of quailing of goods and services, etc. Online shopping has a very subtle way of affecting consumer buying behaviour. The heterogeneous consumers (individuals, households and corporate entities), who invariably differ in age, income, tastes; educational level and psychological disposition form the bulk of online consumer market. The buying behaviour of these consumers, which Perner (2010) sees as “the composite of a consumers beliefs, feelings, attitudes and behavioural intentions toward same object within the context of marketing, can be influenced positively or negatively by individuals who own, advertise and sell their goods and services online”.
The growing number of internet users is one of the factors responsible for buying and selling practice. For instance, the number of internet users in Nigeria has further increased to 93.4 million, according to a new report on Internet status in the country. The report obtained by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecoms industry regulator, indicated the country has recorded about 14 per cent growth in mobile internet subscriptions between January and end of July 2015. According to the data, which show that Nigeria’s mobile internet ecosystem is gaining momentum, telecoms networks collectively boosted mobile internet subscriptions on their networks from 81.8 million in January to 93.4 million in July.
The interactive media such as the internet, allow for a back-and-forth flow of information, whereby users can participate in and modify the form of the information received in real time. The growth of online users thereby attracted marketers to recognize its usage as an important part of their marketing communication strategies because it helps organizations to communicate with their customers in two-way i.e. bi-directional or interactive in nature. These interactions help marketers determine customers’ needs and understand what their market might look like. There are lots of e-shops serving millions of Nigerians online users who can trust online platform as another alternative means of buying and selling particularly among students of University of Port Harcourt who are verse in the operation of computer, Smartphone and knowledge of internet.
Online shopping is used as a medium for communication and electronic commerce; it is to increase or improve in value, quality and attractiveness of delivering customer benefits and better satisfaction; that is why online shopping is more convenient and day by day is increasing in its popularity.
The consumer’s attitude towards online shopping is known as the main factor that affects e-shopping potential (Micheal, 1988). Attitudinal issues are also thought to play a significant role in e-commence adoption. That means that, through motivation and perception, attitudes are formed and consumers make decisions. Thus, attitudes directly influence decision making.
Attitudes have been known to play a significant role in the adoption of a technology or innovation. Through motivation and perception, attitudes are formed and consumers make decisions (Haque, Sadeghzadeh and Khatibi, 2006). Considering that online shopping is still at its infant stage in Nigeria, there is a need to examine consumers’ attitudes towards the online shopping platform and the factors that influence these attitudes.
Attitudes serve as the bridge between consumer’s background characteristics and the consumption that satisfies the needs (Armstrong and Kotler, 2003, Slowu-Ing, 2003). Because attitudes are difficult to change, to understand consumers’ attitude toward online shopping, can help marketing managers predict the online shopping intention and evaluate the future growth of online shopping. Online shopping has stimulated widespread research aimed at attracting and retaining consumers from either a consumer or a technology-oriented view. The two views do not contradict but rather reinforce each other. Because the success of an electronic market largely depends on consumers’ willingness to accept it. Due to this, we adopted the consumer oriented view of online shopping in this study.
The consumer-oriented in this article focuses on University of Port Harcourt students’ attitude towards online shopping. Online consumer behavior has been examined from the perspectives of attitudes towards benefit of online shopping.
The potential benefits of online shopping for consumers include convenience, various selection, low price, original services, personal attention and easy access to information, among others.
So many Nigerians who make use of the internet as one form of communication or another are bombarded daily with advertisement of product and services from companies around the world. Payporte and Olx appear to be making in road to the internet audience of which many students are part.
Online shopping is becoming popular in the Universities today, especially on University of Port Harcourt students who have gained knowledge of computer. For someone to shop online, such person must be able to read, have knowledge of internet and computer or Smartphone operation, etc. Their attitude and behavior are seen on their eagerness to purchase a particular product online. Students are seen everywhere both in shops, restaurant, business places, etc with a laptop and phones trying to sort or access a new product online to purchase.
Jumia, Konga, Jiji have been known as the most popular online shopping mall but gradually Payporte and Olx came into view.
Due to the influence of Payporte as the head sponsors of Big Brother Naija, students troop online to access this recent product as a result of either being a fan of the housemate in BBN, or their likeness towards Payporte products. Students now order Olx and Payporte with reasons of its popularity and their ability to deliver goods at the door step, easy to compare alternative products, etc.
In January 2017, Payporte forced itself into the consciousness of millions of Nigerians as the lead sponsor of the popular 2017 Big Brother Naija show, which stole the hearts of many Nigerians. This brought a higher level of awareness for the e-commerce industry.
As the lead sponsor of Big Brother Naija show in 2017, Payporte supplied housemates with many of their glamorous outfits, organized games for them during the show and presented free shopping vouchers as prizes for some games.
After the show, as part of their marketing strategy, Payporte made some of the ex-housemates its ambassadors and models for the brand. A few months later, the brand also became the first Nigerian online shopping store to suspend the pay-on-delivery (PoD) option that is widely believed to be detrimental to customers. The company said the decision was in its bid to serve customers better and re-position its business for profitability.
Tolani Baj Signs Endorsement Deal With Payporte (2020 BBNaija Lockdown)
September 29, 2020.
BBNaija star Tolani Baj is cashing out and making money moves as the TV star, bagged an endorsement deal with clothing brand Payporte. The TV star shared the exciting news with her fans on Instagram.
She shared photos from the official signing with the caption: I’m super excited to announce my partnership with @payporte as their official brand ambassador. We cannot wait to see Tolani Baj slay premium looks.
Reasons for online shopping growth
Though there are several factors that influence consumers to shop online, below are some of the factors responsible for the growth of online shopping
Convenience: It is easier to browse or search information online than the traditional retail shopping. Through online, consumers can easily search product catalog but if the consumer look generally for the same product or item in a traditional store manually it is difficult to visit physically and time consuming also. Convenience has always been a prime factor for consumers to shop online. The major motivation for online purchasing is convince in terms of shop at any time and having bundles of items delivered at door step.
Through online purchase consumers can easily compare the price than the traditional purchase. So price comparison is also another convenience factor of online shopping.
Time saving: Time savings is one of most influencing factors of online shopping. Browse or search an online catalogue can save time and patience. People can save time and can reduce effort by shopping online. One possible explanation that online shopping saves time during the purchasing of goods and it can eliminate the traveling time required to go to the traditional store. On the other side, some respondent think that it is also time taken for delivery of goods or services over online shopping. For instance, buying downloadable materials like music, video, articles, journals, domain name, hosting, website template etc in Europe, America by Nigerians saves lots of time and energy.
Website design/features: Website design and online shopping activity is one of the vital influencing factors of online shopping. Website design, website reliability/fulfillment, website customer service and website security/privacy are the most attractive features which influence the perception of the consumer of online buying. The higher website quality, the higher consumer intends to shop from internet. Web design quality has important impacts on consumer choice of electronic stores. Almost 100,000 on-line shopper’s surveyed by (Reibstein, 2000) shows that web site design was rated as important factor for online shopping.
Security: Security is another dominant factor which affects consumers to shop online. However many internet users avoid online shopping because of credit card fraud, privacy factors, non-delivery risk, post purchase service and so on. But transaction security on the online shopping has received attention. Safe and secured transaction of money and credit card information increases trust and decreases transaction risk. The internet shopping with advanced technology, and frequent online shopping to the internet being secured as a trustworthy shopping channel.
Challenges of online shopping in Nigeria
Fair of Fraud: Major of the internet users in Nigeria do not trust each other especially with the present of online fraudsters popularly called (Yahoo guys) who sell and make transaction on what is not available or only computer graphic to design their product and materials which has made many to lost millions of money. Some online stores appear with no intentions of shipping anything. The scam is to disappear after getting paid. There are too many complex examples of this.
Access to internet: The quality of internet network service available to individuals differs from place to place, this go a long way in determining the amount of time spent online by an individual while it also influence the kind of activities they engaged online. Recently, I was trying to subscribe my cable TV, unfortunately when I have entered my debit card number just waiting for the action to complete the MTN network using via my modem could not responded due to the poor network which resulted to debiting me 1,500. Although it was later claimed but since then, this is this phobia anytime I wanted to try another. Also, people in urban and cities enjoy good network more than those in the remote area therefore, relegating rural dwellers access.
Power supply: Imaging it remains few seconds when your system is loading your payment for an order and suddenly the system shutdown due to low power or complete blackout in your street.
Alien: Shopping online is completely alien to Nigerians and its level of credibility and authenticity is poor as many people have either been scammed or duped by the set of guys called Yahoo Yahoo. This created a strong stigma on Nigerians in believing paying for a goods or services online. Trust is a very rare commodity, especially in Nigeria. There are multitudes of stories about scams and betrayals. Since trust is in short supply, many find it impossible to sit behind a computer to buy online by sending money to a strange company or person.
Benefits of online shopping
Online consumer is an individual or corporation who purchases products or services online through an electronic device. There are certain benefits which encourage people to purchase items through the online medium. They include, but not limited to, the following.
Convenience: Online stores are usually open 24 hours a day, and many consumers have internet access both at home and at work. You can even shop at night in the comfort of your home while others are sleeping; you can easily visit their website, find the product you want and buy it without getting out of your home. It is also convenient because you do not need to wait for the store to open.
More variety: One can get several brands and products from different sellers in one place. You can also get on the latest international trends without spending money on airfare. One can shop from retailers in other parts of the country, or without being limited by geography.
Better price: Cheap items and better prices are available online, because the product will get to you direct from the manufacturer or seller without middle men being involved. The involvement of middlemen inevitably hikes prices of items as they would want to derive pecuniary benefits from the transaction.
Discreet shopping: Some physical stores often make it difficult to buy certain items like lingerie without getting annoying stares from people. Shopping online gives you privacy because you will not have people looking at you while shop.
Save time: Online shopping saves time in the sense that you do not have to transport yourself to any store to shop. With just a couple of clicks of the mouse, your shopping is done.
Information and reviews: Here online stores describe products for sale with text, photos and multimedia files, whereas in a physical retail store (traditional) the actual product and the manufacturers’ packaging are available for direct inspection (which might involve a test drive, fitting in other experimentation).When online shops advert their products, consumers are provided with basic information and they (consumers) utilize it to make better purchasing decisions.
Price and selection: Here, the benefit of online shopping is the ability to quickly seek out deals for items or services with many different vendors. Search engines, online price comparison services and discovery shopping engines can be to look up sellers of a particular product or service.
There is no gaining saying in the fact that ICT advertising or online buying and selling has formed part of the advanced means of business which organizations especially profit making firms must not toy with if such company wants to succeed in this technological advanced age. Findings also revealed that the major challenge thwarting online shopping effectiveness among students have been attributed to insecurity, lack of trust and high presence of online scammers whereas convenience, time saving, unavailability of such products/services in their area and friends and family experience discourage those that buy or use services or goods online. Responses to online products are highly negative as a result of the challenges they have encountered.
Recommendations
Online shops owners should take necessary steps to improve on early and safety delivery of goods to encourage more clients to shop online.
Government through the United Nations should formulate programmes and policies that will regulate and protect online business in the world. All effort should be developed to ensure that fraud is minimizing to the barest level, so that people especially, the internet users can have a rest of mind to shop online and receive their products and services.
Management of online stores like payporte should embark on an overhauling of their e-commerce sites to allow for simultaneous crowd-shopping of various products in the future as well as to examine the issue of dispatch riders’ indifference to customers’ satisfaction.
Also, they should device a means to gain customers trust and confidence on their products and services; due to their encounter with previous online shopping malls, loses interest on online products and services.
Online payment for products and services such as money perfect, credit card, debit card, online signed cheque, paypal and others should be protected while many easier ones should be designed to make online payment easier, effective and fraudulent free.
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