You dream of starting an eCommerce business in Nigeria. You have the skills, time, and capital to take it off the ground, but you can’t pin down that viable eCommerce business idea.

In the past year, the pandemic has affected different industries in Nigeria and created a huge disparity between fields. Ecommerce is one of the industries that have the fastest growth thanks to the regulations on social distance. Residents have to stay at home 24/7 and purchase mostly through online platforms, making their lives almost tied to smartphones and the Internet.

Running an eCommerce business definitely has its appeal, but it also comes with its own set of challenges. The truth is, starting a business of any kind is hard work. While some may think of the internet as a get-rich-quick scheme, basic business principles still apply. 

In this article, we will summarize the top eCommerce business ideas in Nigeria that create profit.

#1: Natural Skincare Products For Women

It can be seen that cosmetics is currently one of the areas with the highest sales in Nigeria, while also attracting the largest number of customers on both online and offline channels. For online channels, or more specifically eCommerce platforms, business owners are often young entrepreneurs since more than anyone else, they are the most suitable people to run this product line.

Organic skincare is on the rise. People are moving away from chemical-filled skincare products as they become more aware of how some chemicals affect the skin and the environment. Their preferred option is natural products.

This is a top eCommerce niche; the margins are great and stats look good. The organic skin care products market is expected to ring in at $22 billion by 2024. The year-on-year growth rate is 10%. This shows steady growth.

Trending products in this market include facial oil, body scrub, mineral sunscreen, and facial cleanser. The good thing is, you can sell any of them for the long term.

Unless you have the time, knowledge, and resources, the most logical way to ensure your products are truly organic is private label. Regardless of the products you choose there are private label manufacturers that can make them for you.

Women love beauty products and natural ones are even better, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll easily sell immediately you drop down into the eCommerce world.

#2: Create a niche apparel product. 

You can create an eCommerce website to sell niche, custom-made apparel products such as branded merchandise or slogan t-shirts.

You don’t even need to invest in the inventory upfront. You can use print-on-demand services like Printify to drop ship t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies… even socks!

T-shirts are easily the first clothing item you’ll think of for print-on-demand. No wonder plain t-shirts are harder to see these days with the variety of design-printed shirts everywhere.

Since the t-shirt market is saturated, you’ll have more chances of selling when you have a niche target market.

Lifestyle products make up one of the top eCommerce niches. With print-on-demand lifestyle apparel, you can easily piggyback on a community or trend that already exists. We have:

• Pets
• Animals
• Music
• Maps
• Fitness
• Food

These are broad category niches that you can look into for a micro-niche. There are many other categories and products that you work your eCommerce idea around. As long as there is a passionate audience, you are set for the road.

Why sell niche apparel products?

• We all need clothes, don’t we? When you enter the apparel market, you don’t have to worry about the demand unexpectedly drying up. Last year, in April 2020, t-shirt sales increased by 47% and pajama sales jumped by 143% as per Adobe Digital Index. 
• Apparel remains a growing industry. In 2020, the global apparel market generated approximately $1.46 trillion in revenue. And it’s predicted to grow to roughly $2.25 trillion by 2025.

Read more: Top Legit Online businesses That Pay Daily in Nigeria

#3: Online courses and eBooks

Do you have an expert or enough knowledge about a subject, industry, or a new way to do/achieve certain things? Then make a course around it.

Learning something new always requires quality learning and teaching. Especially when COVID-19 appeared, the demand for quality educational materials on online platforms was increasing more than ever.

Although there are many online courses, the market cannot be saturated. Even if a platform like Udemy, or other online stores has millions of courses, there will still be a need for more.

There are many options and niches for you to discover and sell your expertise through eCommerce platforms. People would buy as long as it’s relevant and they know it exists.

However, you have more chances of selling if you’re known as an expert of some sort. You can prove that through social media or showing up on search engine results – your website and interviews elsewhere.

Digital products are a good source of passive income.

So businesses can take advantage of this appropriate moment to provide unique materials, expertise, and teaching content that viewers cannot find on other platforms, thereby creating different eCommerce business ideas for your business.

Why sell online courses?

• Online courses have incredible profit margins because you don’t have to think about manufacturing, storage, shipping, etc. 

#4: Dropship

Dropshipping is a method of selling products online, without actually stocking them. Instead, you sign up with a manufacturer who’ll supply the goods to your customers after they purchase them from your eCommerce site.

Why dropship?

• Lower startup costs: Dropshipping reduces the costs of launching an online business because you don’t need to invest in inventory up front. 
• Diverse product range: You can offer a wider range of product categories and jump on new trends.

Dropship HIIT Equipment And Sell Training Programs

The fitness niche is one of the top eCommerce niches. It is evergreen, stable, and profitable for the savviest eCommerce entrepreneurs. HIIT workouts keep rising in popularity; you’ll hit a home run with this niche if you choose to start an online business selling HIIT equipment.

You can dropship armbands, jump ropes, medicine balls, and other smaller items with less shipping cost. This is a great idea for a small business startup.

This eCommerce idea has been trending upwards for a while now. Start your online marketing first by analyzing the competitive space.

Dropship Handmade Jewelry To Women

You have more chances of differentiating as a drop-shipper when you sell unique products. Customers want unique products and unique experiences.

Also, the price of handmade jewelry is hard to guess easily so you can set a reasonable price and have a good margin. Selling on your online store also puts you in more control than marketplaces.

Concerning supplies, you have better chances when you don’t use AliExpress. Many sellers are already dropshipping tons of jewelry on AliExpress; competition is fierce.

Go directly to the craft maker’s website and ask if you can retail the product. While this isn’t entirely necessary, if they know that you are dropshipping, you could get a discount especially if you are bringing in many sales. Handmade jewelry is not the only craft you can dropship, make, or wholesale.

#5: Health and Fitness

As our lifestyles become more sedentary, people are increasingly interested in health and fitness.

One of the best things that you can do right now is to offer online fitness coaching classes. It’s an excellent eCommerce business idea!

So consider going into the health and fitness market. This includes wellness products such as supplements, various exercise equipment, and even digital products such as workout routines and meal plans. Start off by offering home workouts and gain a few followers before you eventually start marketing your business in earnest.

Why sell health and fitness products?

• According to the Global Wellness Institute, in 2018, the physical activity industry was valued at $828 billion and the healthy eating, nutrition and weight loss industry was valued at $702 billion. You can find yourself a niche in markets this big.

#6: Sell something that is trending. 

You can also make money by capitalizing on current market trends. How do you find one? 

• Go to Google Trends.
• Put in the keyword.
• Pick the timeframe. 
• Analyze the results.

For obvious reasons, face masks became the ‘it’ product in 2020:

Google Trends is an excellent free tool for evaluating trending products (say, a novel gadget).

Why sell something that is trending?

• Hype: When some blogger-approved product becomes trending, everyone rushes to get their hands on it. So you can spend less on advertising and capitalize on the surged demand. 
• Instant cash injection. You can turn a good profit quickly if you jump on the bandwagon. This can improve your cash flow and give you extra funds to re-invest in your business.

How to make eCommerce business ideas come true?

• Research and explore niche markets

Without proper research, you cannot know the current market situation; therefore, it is necessary to start with real research. After researching and researching, you will discover the niche and find a path and eCommerce business ideas which you think you can build a foothold on your own and show your strengths to the world.

• Choose an e-commerce platform and create a unique website

The most important thing when starting an eCommerce business is choosing an e-commerce platform. To develop an eCommerce store, much attention should be paid to choosing an e-commerce platform to help businesses with website management, inventory, sales, operations, and marketing.

This platform is like comprehensive software to take care of your online store management requirements. The website is the face of the business and you have to create a unique website that is different from other competitors’ websites.

• Sourcing or listing products

This is also one of the most important aspects of running an eCommerce business. Traders can manufacture their products or choose to source products through distributors, or they can simply list their products and services on the business website.

• Marketing activities

Once the website is ready to run, to grow, traders must promote the marketing of that business effectively.

Lists of marketing strategies like social media advertising, word of mouth, Google advertising, and many other online marketing strategies and techniques can help online businesses grow and move closer to their business goals.

• Lock down the details of your business. 

You need to work out the whole business concept before you launch.

• What inventory will you carry?
• How will you price your products?
• How will you market your business?

These are the three most important things. But you also need to look into operational aspects such as:

• Shipping
• Taxes
• Return policy 
• Local laws and regulations 

Wrapping Up!

It can be said that eCommerce is the future of commerce. Nowadays, many businesses are running the company only through a smartphone, and the form of mobile payment is no stranger to everyone. All of the above examples are some of the best examples of eCommerce business ideas in Nigeria, you’re not limited to these eCommerce business ideas.

But there’s a huge gap between idea and profit called “execution”. That’s where a lot of entrepreneurs stumble. Even the most amazing eCommerce business idea is worth nothing unless you act upon it. So gear up, pick that niche (you now know plenty), and start building your eCommerce store.