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Home | Small business | ( 2 ) | Subscribe

Posted by Felix Okoli on Friday August 3, 2012 8:23:46:

One of the mistakes some small businesses in Nigeria keep doing is avoiding the internet like a plaque. Truth is, there are more young people in Nigeria than old people and most of these young people make use of the internet and they are getting smarter by also using it to do some window shopping before actually doing the real shopping.

Nigerian Businesses which have listed their products and services on the internet have found out that they made more sales than they initially did before their online listing. There is a growing number of online business listings and classified sites related to Nigeria and this is because of the large number of businesses which are offline.

The traditional method of shopping was to go from market to market scanning for products, finding a good price and reliable supplier before actually buying. Nowadays, people actually Google for Nigerian products, services and businesses that offer them before actually going out to buy them. The latter saves time, transportation cost and offers a direct shopping experience. It is becoming more convenient for people in Nigeria to shop at real markets by first of all Googling for it.

How young Nigerians shop
Here is a scenario, assuming I am interested in buying a cheap hp laptop and I Google for "cheap hp laptop Lagos Nigeria", the result that comes out will mostly be on sites where such Nigerian businesses and products have been listed and some of them even carry prices and contacts. I could call them for their current price and confirm their location before actually going to see the product. So it is much easier that ways to just go and buy it. I could also make inquiries through their listed online contact if they accept ATM card payments or cash and so on.

How you can get your business listed online
There are many methods you can use to have your business internet exposure and they include:

- Having a corporate website
- Doing a free business listing
- Posting a classified advert
- Using online advertising

So you can use either method but the most affordable one is to simply do a free business listing and there are many sites that offer that nowadays. If you have a product or service that you want to market, you can also make use of classified websites.

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Comments:
Re: Get more customers using the internet Reply by Fabian Nome on Wednesday August 15, 2012 at 16:38:17:

Goodday Mr Felix Okoli. Please i want to know how to do business with the uses of internet and how to create my business website. Please reply to my email. fabianchucks@gmail.com. Thanks.

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Re: Get more customers using the internet Reply by Felix Okoli on Wednesday August 15, 2012 at 16:38:17:

Go to a site like gnbo.com.ng and create your free business website powered by Google.

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