These B2B businesses help retailers in the micro business ecosystem get goods at the manufacturers or accredited suppliers price and get the same delivered for free at the time they (retailers) want the goods delivered.

Adewale Opaleye, Alerzo CEO, hinted that tech firms helping retailers of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) shop with ease through their mobile phones, are setting a standard with their reputation and free delivery services.

“On top of that, what we need in this space is building trust,” he said. “Right now in this space, we are the only company that delivers within four hours; retailers get their products delivered to them within four hours depending on when they order for products,” he added.

Opaleye continued: “We own our infrastructure, that is actually important because you don’t solve a problem by being a third party in space.

“Right now we built our own logistics routing software that allows our drivers to walk around retail stores pretty quickly.”

Going further on using technology to help retailers run their businesses, he explained that e-commerce is pretty big “even before we started to talk about e-commerce, commerce already existed. Everyone was already buying and selling.”

He said further: “E-commerce needs two things to function: smartphones and the internet. Right now smartphones are becoming more accessible to the people.”

Meanwhile, e-commerce spending in Nigeria is worth about $12billion and is forecast to hit $75 billions by 2025.

Adewale Opaleye, Alerzo’s Founder/Chief Executive Officer, said the B2B e-commerce firm was revving up its market presence with an ambitious expansion drive to bring the benefits of digital solutions closer to Nigerians irrespective of their locations, especially micro businesses operating in the underserved rural communities.

“Our strong presence in the South-West and continued expansion to the North-West and Central consolidate our desire to grow in a sustainable manner and continue to serve those that are underserved,’’ he said.

Speaking against the backdrop of the impact of ecommerce on the national economy, Opaleye stated that e-commerce players in the country were offering digital solutions that enabled informal retailers to access a vast assortment of goods and commodities with ease and faster, thereby saving them lot of time, energy and resources, and ultimately bring down their operating cost.

“On our Alerzoshop retail app, we have a vast assortment available to our customers to choose from, and we offer free delivery in all the over 13 cities we’re currently operating in. We change the landscape for the retailers through our one delivery at a time model,’’ he stated.

Opaleye added that, ‘‘for the past two years, we have delivered to informal retailers at no cost. With our delivery services, retailers save time, energy, and resources that they would have otherwise expended in restocking. These benefits have resulted in 85 per cent of our retailers reducing their two to four times a week restock trips to zero.”

He noted that Alerzo was committed to alleviating the peculiar challenges which micro business owners in underserved areas go through.

According to him, some of the challenges include difficulty in accessing goods on time occasioned by dearth of infrastructure such as good road network, long distance to the market and lack of adequate transportation system to move purchased goods to the stores.

There is need for more intervention of B2B ecommerce platforms to reach the underserved, and to further boost the national gross domestic product (GDP) of which the informal retailers are critical.

The informal retail segment makes up the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) bloc which serves as the engine of economic growth contributing 50 per cent to the GDP and 80 per cent of the country’s total employment.

B2B ecommerce platforms have significantly impacted the manufacturing, distribution and retail value chains by supporting them with tech-driven digital solutions including warehousing and logistics infrastructure, and fulfilment solutions.

B2B ecommerce platforms like Alerzo have their presence in rural areas and are reaching the underserved with access to extensive catalogue of products and logistics.

Through texts, phone calls and logging on to the site where applicable, customers now easily place orders and get the goods delivered swiftly without being charged for delivery.

So, unlike the deprivation of past years which micro business owners in underserved areas faced, most of them today can boast of better and faster access to goods and commodities.

Characteristically, the majority of informal retail businesses are largely unstructured despite their huge potential. Nigeria’s informal retail business is estimated at $100 billion.

The food and consumer goods retail market alone is estimated to be worth over $40 billion, and there are millions of operators in that space. 

For those that make retailing their daily occupation, they do face some challenges sometimes. 

Mrs. Joyce Chukwu (not real name) typifies the problems an average Nigerian micro retailer goes through. 

Delivered of twins recently, Mrs. Joyce has found it more tasking to run her grocery store which is about 30 minutes away from her house, and caring for her three-year-old son alongside her newborn twins.

Madam JC, as her customers fondly call her, finds it inconvenient to leave the house very early to beat traffic and get to a popular market where she gets goods for her store. She also moves around in fear of robbery because of cash money she goes to the market with.

These in addition to opportunity costs, dangers of travel, lack of financial advice, inadequate transport for purchased goods are part of the ordeals of women who are engaged in retail business due to Nigeria’s difficult social and economic terrain. 

It is noteworthy, however, that the emergence of B2C and B2B ecommerce platforms has and is creating an environment that is more enabling for micro businesses. 

With digital technology, retailers no longer have to deal with those issues highlighted above as e-commerce – one of the key gains of digital revolution – continues to impact our daily life, behaviour and choices, which also portend good for micro businesses.

Founder of Alerzo, a leading B2B ecommerce company, Adewale Opaleye, said the beauty of ecommerce platforms lies in their power to leverage technology to create opportunities for businesses including micro retail outlets as well as power them with digital solutions to improve and increase their efficiency. 

He stated that with an array of Alerzo’s tech-driven digital solutions, retailers can order and make payment for goods as well as restock online or offline through USSD. 

Opaleye stated that ecommerce platforms also provide warehousing and fulfilment solutions to suppliers while also delivering ordered goods at free cost to retailers. For example, Alerzo has been providing free delivery services to retailers for over two years.

“On our Alerzoshop retail app, we have a vast assortment available to our customers to choose from, and we offer free delivery in all the over 13 cities we’re currently operational. We change the landscape for them (retailers) through on time delivery.

‘‘For the past two years, we have delivered to informal retailers at no cost. With our delivery services, retailers save time, energy, and resources that they would have otherwise expended in restocking. These benefits have resulted in 85% of our retailers reducing their two to four times a week restock trips to zero,” he disclosed. 

Other areas where B2B ecommerce platforms intervene include providing authentic goods and right pricing to retailers, thereby protecting the end-users from buying adulterated goods and being affected by unreasonable price-hikes especially by unapproved intermediaries. 

The interventions also include providing credit facilities and financial literacy to retailers which further eases the way they run their businesses.

For Alerzo boss, supporting informal retailers is even a sort of empowerment initiative because majority of the retailers are women, 70 per cent of whom are primary breadwinners and contributing to Nigeria’s economy and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). 

With more informal retailers taking advantage of B2B ecommerce, and Alerzo and other platforms deepening opportunities on how technology can be further harnessed to empower informal retailers, ecommerce will be helping many businesses grow sustainably and thrive in today’s dynamic environment.

Effective from May 1st 2022, Akubuiro will lead further expansion of TradeDepot’s services across more key cities in Nigeria and Ghana, and drive growth across English-speaking West Africa.  

Akubuiro comes into the role with extensive experience in the FMCG sector, having spent over a decade leading and delivering commercial success for some of the most in-demand consumer goods brands on the continent.

Before joining TradeDepot as Commercial Director in July 2020, Akubuiro had previous roles at FMCG manufacturer Hayat Kimya Nigeria and Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, where he designed, oversaw and supported the implementation of various sales and growth strategies to drive revenue and meet sales objectives.

This experience will be leveraged to deepen relationships with key stakeholders in the retail sector and drive profitability in TradeDepot’s commercial operations.

In recent years, TradeDepot has built a reputation as the supply partner for Africa’s retail ecosystem, leveraging its data, technology and robust logistics operations to get consumer goods from leading manufacturers into the hands of retailers that can sell them.

Via its ShopTopUp platform, the company also provides credit lines to fund inventory purchases for retailers, enabling increased sales, higher margins and other value-added services for all parties.

With active operations in 15 key cities across Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, and an innovative merchant platform, TradeDepot takes the pressure off everyone else in the retail value chain by making it easier for manufacturers and distributors to get their products into more than 100,000 retail stores, and for retailers to access the inventory and financial services they need to run successful businesses.

According to Onyekachi Izukanne, CEO and co-founder of TradeDepot, “Chidi brings a wealth of experience that will be invaluable on our mission to make life easier for retailers across Africa. In his short time with us, he has made many valuable contributions that have put us in a stronger position to achieve our objectives and I am looking forward to working more closely with him to drive more success and profitability across the board.”

Chidi Akubuiro, Managing Director for West Africa (English-speaking) at TradeDepot, said, “TradeDepot has been at the cutting edge of innovation in Africa’s retail space for a long time and I am thrilled by the opportunity to support the delivery of more prosperity across the value chain. Our ecosystem is ripe with opportunities and I am confident that we can continue to deliver the solutions to realise these opportunities.”