BuyCommonThings.com captures Nigeria's online retailing space

… Saves consumers time and money

Ben Uzor Jr

 Nigeria’s No. 1 online grocery store, BuyCommonThings.com, has upped the ante and captured the online retailing space with service delivery that saves its customers time, stress and money. Its 100 percent free same-day doorstep delivery has connected strongly with its teeming online customers as to qualify as a game-changer in Nigeria’s online grocery retailing space, as well as in the brick-and-mortar retailing space. If the very affordable prices of the products sold on BuyCommonThings.com are then factored into this 100 percent free same-day delivery service, the natural response to this is, wow.

Olumide Olusanya, chief executive officer of BuyComonThings.com, and former CEO of Cards Technology Limited, indicated that the reason for this emanates from his organisation’s vision for the BuyCommonThings.com service: “to be Nigeria's No.1 Online Grocery Store by changing the way Nigerians shop for groceries--the same way Amazon.com changed the way the world shops for books.”

To realise this vision, the organisation has set out the mission for itself of providing Nigerians simple but compelling reasons to do all their grocery shopping via BuyCommonThings.com. The concept is hinged on providing great affordability in prices; increasingly wide selection and variety; and a great customer service experience that resonates with its target customers.

Olumide insists that convenience is not the primary selling point of BuyCommonThings.com. Rather, convenience is a consequence of the business model adopted by BuyCommonThings.com when compared to the large multinational retailing giants in the country. BuyCommonThings.com seeks to sell the same value proposition these large retailing giants are selling—and more—in a more efficient way. This may appear to be a tall order. Nevertheless, it seems to be gaining traction with the customers BuyCommonThings.com is targeting with this service. In three months, BuyCommonThings.com has captured the attention of its target market due to its simple strategy of giving service.

The online store is making available its increasingly wide array of grocery products to an increasing number of Nigerians, starting from Lagos. Olumide Olusanya said, “One of the things the internet does is that it makes pricing transparent so you can compare prices. The day you begin to see customers here using their smart phones to open BuyCommonThings.com’s site to do comparisons while shopping in the large grocery outlets is the tipping point for the realization of our vision.” Recall that as an e-payment entrepreneur, Olumide was part of the forerunners that birthed the electronic payments industry in Nigeria at the turn of the century. He sits atop BuyCommonThings.com and he is positioned to lead in the online retailing domain in Nigeria. As Jeff Bezos grew his retailing business into a colossus on the back of the internet, Olumide is set to do the same in Nigeria with BuyCommonThings.com.