Interview with Saudat Salami, Founder, Easyshop Easycook

Up to 30% of a Basket of Tomatoes in Nigeria Goes to Waste. Learn What Sweeping Change Will Fix That Here

EasyShop EasyCook Makes Life Easier for Working Women

Online shopping has been growing rapidly ever since it was introduced to Nigeria. More and more people, especially youths, purchase their everyday items online. However, in a country like Nigeria where customers want to see and touch what they are buying and often fear for the security of their data and online payments, shopping for groceries online is still in its early stages.

I started EasyShop EasyCook in Lagos, Nigeria, because I saw the vast opportunities for online grocery shopping in an environment where traffic, parking difficulties, and long queues often make buying groceries tedious and time-consuming.

We Provide Convenient Online Grocery Shopping

There are many valid reasons to shop for groceries online, and the benefits outweigh the risks. Some people simply don’t like shopping, and Nigerians like to buy in bulk. Also, shopping takes time, and people have other things to do. With an online shop, they can place an order right from home or work and still have time to engage in other activities.

In addition, people can compare prices while shopping online. They can check the features of a product and even call someone to tell them about the product before buying. They can skip the struggle over the few parking spots in the market. And, of course, they can avoid impulse buying because a website allows them to pick exactly what they want and stick to a budget. This is different from walking through a store that displays chocolate and other things they don’t need but are tempted to buy.

Even though grocery shopping online is only a small segment of the online retail market at the moment, I see it expanding quickly. It’s all about building trust and creating awareness of the benefits of buying groceries online.

I Manage My Business for Profitability

While EasyShop EasyCook waits for volume to build, we try to organize our business and manage orders in a way that makes us profitable. Since we deliver fresh groceries, delivering outside Lagos is not an option right now. A lot of e-companies do not offer fresh groceries because there are numerous risks in terms of product quality. The business needs to be profitable for us, so the average order size is about 40,000 naira, and our average daily number of orders is about ten. Every year, we set a target to increase our order numbers by about 40%.

Great Customer Service Is the Key to Our Success

Customer service is critical for us; and, as part of our commitment, we always strive for the freshest products. At the moment, we source our groceries from farmers and produce markets, but our expansion plan involves dealing with farmers directly and making them our number one source. We are looking at building a collection of facilities so that we can take a number of small-scale farmers and get them to concentrate on producing to sell commercially. This strategy would reduce costs for us and improve quality.

Nigeria has recently been banned from exporting some of our food produce, and that has a lot to do with low food standards, poor handling practices, and lack of storage facilities. For now, we use generators to help store produce, but we are trying to move to solar-powered electricity generating facilities with the help of GEMS 4, a UKAid/DFID funded initiative, which aims to improve income and employment opportunities within Nigeria’s wholesale and retail sector. We are also working with Oxfam and farmers associations to train our farmers on good handling practices in order to reduce waste, as most of the problems with waste begin on the farm.

Another way we provide great customer service is with our delivery and return policies. We have our own delivery facilities because we want to take responsibility for the food quality. A lot of people order foods that we need to deliver frozen, as well as eggs, vegetables, and other delicate items. We have a 100% return policy, so if we deliver an order and the customer is not satisfied, we will take it back. (This means that we cannot hire a third party to deliver on our behalf because we cannot be sure of what happens to the products during delivery).

We also keep in constant contact with our clients, calling them until we deliver their products. Our live customer service team is available for customers to make enquiries or make specifications on their order, such as if they want their vegetables processed or not. For us, it’s all about giving our customers one-on-one treatment.

We Prepare Orders to Customer Specifications

The EasyCook part of our business is in how we treat an order once it is placed. We make the food ready to cook in order to reduce the customer’s cooking time. We will grate, grind, scale a fish, and cut vegetables if the customer wants us to. When an order is placed, it is assumed that the customer wants us to do a level of processing before we deliver it, unless otherwise stated. If we are buying meat for a customer, we assume they want it cut and cleaned, but if they do not want it cut and cleaned, that’s fine. This service does not incur any extra charge. That is the idea behind EasyShop EasyCook.

We see ourselves as designed to make life easier for the working woman, so flexibility is key for us. Our money back guarantee, which cannot be found anywhere else, is how we build trust and provide good quality bulk supplies for working women. We also have special packages and credit facilities for some customers. Although we do not yet have an automated tracking system, we make calls to clients to confirm where they are and tell them how long it will take to deliver their order. Every woman’s situation is unique, so we are very flexible.

We Need Infrastructure in Order to Grow

I want to see EasyShop EasyCook expand into a household name, but to achieve that, we need infrastructure. Food shouldn’t be a problem in Nigeria, but it is. For instance, with poor preservation, over thirty percent of a basket of tomatoes is wasted. With infrastructure, this problem will be eliminated. I predict there will be a lot of investment in this sector once there is relevant infrastructure.

Also, for businesses like mine to thrive, we need enforcement of relevant regulation and a good judicial system. If anyone gives me a check that bounces, I should be able to sue, but that is not the case at the moment.

Most Important, We Provide Solutions

For those seeking to enter this industry, they need to know that it’s not a walk in the park. It requires discipline and dexterity, especially in a country like Nigeria where there are a lot of problems. And, notably, in the service sector, you need to come in ready to provide solutions. There are a lot of opportunities once you can provide solutions; and, with time, the money will come in. As you provide solutions, you will create more opportunities.