IT IS impossible to shop in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital… The roads are terrible; the traffic is crazy; the city has only a handful of shopping malls between 20m people; and when you get to a mall many of the branded products on sale are fake. Rich people go to New York or London to shop. “They have no other option,” says Mr Hodara.

(blog post on the Economics: http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab/2013/11/shopping-nigeria)

Nigeria, a country in the South Africa, with a population of more than 170 million, has a big trouble when it turns to daily shopping. Customers face terrible traffic, while the supermarket suffer a lot from the supply shortage. This is an opportunity for online shopping.

Comparing to the existing retails, online shopping has its significant advantage.

1. Less investment. Running online shops cuts the cost of renting a store and hiring staffs, which is a good way to accumulate profit.

2. Reduce the risk of supply shortage. With greater capacity, shop owners can adjust selling orientation according to the change of supply in time.

3. Board customers segment. Nigeria has a rapidly-growing economy and a population of 170m, most of them young. Young people always appeal to online shopping. Also Rich people who were focused to go to New York or London to shop is another big customer group.

However, the main problem of opening a online shop are, on one hand, as the blog post on Economics mentioned, that the warehouse is difficult to find. On the other hand, the security of the assets is also a big problem for owners who want to rend a warehouse in South Africa.