Konga.com has announced its decision to become a prepay only platform. This decision was taken as part of its measures to become more efficient and to focus on the orders that consumers really want.
Why the switch to Prepay?
Providing further explanation on the decision, the CEO, Mr. Shola Adekoya said:
“In recent years, we have explored several solutions for payment and ecommerce in Nigeria and concluded that prepay is the necessary approach for our business and the market.” Given the cost of inflation and increasing challenges managing payment- on-delivery, as well as the resulting level of order cancellations on the platform, we had to take this decision. We will continue to review other ways to provide payment-on-delivery to customers, but for the time being, we will remain a prepay only platform. We have enabled a contact seller button that allows open communication between and seller and buyer in cases where pay on delivery transactions still want to be carried out directly between the seller and the buyer.”.
Konga.com transformed to a prepay only platform in mid-November 2017, and there has been a solid shift towards online payment by customers. “Since we switched over, we have seen a marked increase in online payment which is a much more seamless experience and we sincerely appreciate all our customers who have trusted us enough to begin paying online for their orders” said Mr Adekoya.
Further explaining the implications of this action for the business, Mr. Adekoya said:
“This decision means that we can run a more efficient business and focus our energies on orders that we are sure customers want. It also means that our operating costs will be lower, putting us on a better track.
In line with this new approach, today we are announcing an internal restructuring to align our operations with the prepay only model and our intention to stop warehousing activities. Unfortunately, this will result in a headcount reduction. Letting go of colleagues and friends is not an easy decision, but one that naturally stems from these changes”.
“Our Customers, Merchants and Franchisees should expect to see an improvement in service quality, which continues to be the core of our business approach. We hope that the financial industry, which has made significant improvements since when we started in 2012, will work with us to find simpler solutions for customers to make payments online”.
About Konga.com
Konga.com is a Nigeria’s ecommerce online mall. The company launched in July 2012 with a mission, ‘To Become the Engine of Trade and Commerce in Africa’. The company has recorded very rapid growth and has built an operation that leads the market in customer satisfaction, merchandise shipped and innovation.
Konga began operations as a first party retailer investing in inventory and infrastructure to support the birth of ecommerce in the region. The company has now evolved to become Nigeria’s most vibrant online marketplace with over 80,000 registered merchants on the platform.
With over 350,000 products listed on the site, spanning various categories including Phones, Computers, Clothing, Shoes, Home Appliances, Books, healthcare, Baby Products, personal care and much more, Konga is Nigeria’s largest online marketplace.
