Nigeria's e-commerce market grew by over 30% in the past three years. Fashion, electronics, food, beauty, books, digital services — Nigerians are buying all of it online. Have a product or service and aren't selling it online yet? You're leaving real revenue on the table.
Here's exactly how to start, from choosing the right platform to getting your first payment processed.
Step 1: Decide What You're Selling and to Whom
Before touching a platform or domain name, be specific about two things: what you're selling and who's buying it.
This matters because it shapes every subsequent decision. Selling fashion to Lagos women aged 22–35 requires a different platform, marketing approach, and checkout experience than selling industrial equipment to procurement managers in Port Harcourt. The clearer you are at this stage, the fewer wrong turns you'll make.
- Product type: physical goods, digital products (ebooks, courses, templates), or services?
- Price point: low ticket (under ₦5,000), mid ticket (₦5,000–₦50,000), or high ticket (above ₦50,000)?
- Geographic market: Nigeria only, Nigeria + diaspora, or fully international?
- Volume: are you expecting 5 orders per month or 500?
Step 2: Choose Your Sales Channel
You have three main options for selling online in Nigeria, and they're not mutually exclusive:
Option A: Your own WooCommerce store
Best for: businesses serious about building a long-term brand and customer base. You own your store, your data, and 100% of your revenue (minus payment gateway fees). Requires an initial investment of ₦800,000 – ₦1,800,000 for a professionally built store, plus hosting.
Option B: Marketplace (Jumia, Konga, Jiji)
Best for: validating demand quickly without upfront investment. You list products, the marketplace handles payment and some logistics, and you pay commission (typically 10–25% on Jumia). The downside: you don't own your customer data, you're competing directly with other sellers on the same page, and you're completely dependent on the marketplace's policies.
Option C: Social commerce (Instagram, WhatsApp)
Best for: early-stage product validation with minimal infrastructure. Many Nigerian businesses do significant volume through Instagram DMs and WhatsApp ordering without a formal website. The problem: it's manual, hard to scale, and you have no systematic way to capture and re-market to customers.
The most successful Nigerian e-commerce businesses use all three: their own store for brand building and margin, marketplaces for volume and discovery, and social media for community and acquisition.
Step 3: Register Your Business and Get a Business Account
Before accepting any payments, register your business with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). This gives you:
- Legitimacy — customers trust registered businesses more
- Access to business bank accounts — required by Paystack and Flutterwave for business accounts
- Protection — a registered business separates your personal liability from the business
CAC business name registration costs approximately ₦10,000 – ₦25,000 and can be done online at cac.gov.ng. Once registered, open a business account at any commercial bank — you'll need this to link to your payment gateway.
Step 4: Choose Your Payment Gateway
For Nigerian online stores, you have two primary options: Paystack and Flutterwave. Both are CBN-licensed, widely trusted by Nigerian consumers, and integrate with WooCommerce.
- Paystack: recommended for businesses selling primarily to Nigerian consumers. Best checkout experience, highest local transaction success rates
- Flutterwave: recommended if you're selling internationally or across multiple African countries
Most serious Nigerian e-commerce businesses integrate both — one primary, one backup. The fee gap between them is minor next to the protection of having both active; see the full fee breakdown if you want the exact numbers before deciding.
Apply for a merchant account on each platform's website. You'll need: your BVN, CAC registration documents, bank account details, and a few business details. Approval typically takes 1–3 business days.
Step 5: Build Your Online Store
If you're building your own store rather than starting with a marketplace, this is the core investment decision. Your options in Nigeria:
WooCommerce (recommended)
Built on WordPress. You own it completely. Best for Nigerian payment gateway integration. Fully customisable. SEO-friendly. Your store cost depends on complexity — starter stores from ₦800,000 professionally built, or DIY with hosting from ₦45,000/month.
Shopify
Easier to set up yourself, monthly subscription from roughly $29/month. Nigerian gateway integration works but isn't as seamless as WooCommerce's, and you pay an extra transaction fee on all revenue since Nigerian businesses can't use Shopify Payments. Better suited to international-first businesses — the full comparison walks through the real 3-year cost difference.
Jumia Global Marketplace
No store to build — you simply list products. No upfront cost, but commission applies on all sales. Good for validating demand before building your own store.
Step 6: Set Up Logistics and Delivery
This is the most commonly underestimated part of Nigerian e-commerce. A beautiful store with a broken delivery experience generates refunds, disputes, and negative reviews.
- GIG Logistics, DHL, Sendstack, and Kwik are popular courier options for Nigerian e-commerce
- Set clear delivery timelines on your website — Nigerian shoppers want to know when they'll receive their order
- Consider free delivery thresholds (e.g. free delivery on orders above ₦20,000) to increase average order value
- Handle returns and exchanges clearly — a published returns policy builds trust
Step 7: Drive Traffic to Your Store
Building the store is 40% of the work. Getting customers to find it is the other 60%. Your traffic strategy should include:
- Instagram and Facebook — organic content and targeted paid ads are the most common entry point for Nigerian e-commerce traffic
- WhatsApp — broadcast your store launch to your contacts; convert DM enquiries to store purchases
- SEO — optimise your product pages for searches like 'buy [product] in Nigeria' — this produces free, compounding traffic over time
- Google Shopping — product listing ads that appear with images and prices in Google search results
Common Mistakes Nigerian Online Sellers Make
- Launching a store before testing the checkout flow end-to-end — always process a real test transaction before going live
- Not having product photos — a phone camera in good natural light is enough; dark, blurry product photos kill conversion
- Listing products without prices — Nigerian consumers are accustomed to 'DM for price' but it dramatically reduces conversion rates
- Ignoring post-purchase communication — a WhatsApp or email confirming the order, delivery timeline, and tracking information builds enormous trust
- Trying to sell everything to everyone — start with your best-selling 10–20 products, not 500 poorly presented listings
Brela builds WooCommerce stores for Nigerian businesses that are properly configured for Paystack and Flutterwave, mobile-optimised, SEO-ready, and handed over with full management training. Starting from ₦800,000. Get a free consultation.
