New eCommerce platform to connect buyers, sellers

An electronic commerce (eCommerce) web application platform, Market Buddy, has formally debuted in Nigeria with a focus on connecting buyers to sellers.
MarketBuddy provides three types of services including the sale of goods/items and services from vendors and an auction module. The platform is a one-stop location for goods, services and bidding.

Conceived about four years ago to bridge specific needs within the Nigerian eCommerce space, the firm said customers can get their goods and services within the desired price range and quality level.

Accordingly, the firm also seeks to provide affordable web services for small businesses that cannot afford to host a website and use the platform as a stage to showcase goods and services.

Speaking at the formal launch held at The Nest Technology Hub, Lagos, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer, MarketBuddy, Adejuwon Adeboboye, said the firm wants to among other things bridge the gap between blue-collar artisans, who have no reach on the Internet but that just depends on their traditional day to day pickups from people on the roadside by giving them platforms to exhibit products and services globally. 

With the firm headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, Adeboboye said the efficiency of the artisans on the platform would be determined by the number of works done, which are ranked and reviewed, thereby helping the platform reach out to more people.

The CEO revealed that about 3000 artisans have been onboarded to the platform and about 15, 000 goods are also on MarketBuddy.
In selecting artisans for the platform, “we sent a few agents to the market to survey and introduce the platform to people, especially those with zero online presence. Then we help them to come to the platform after a thorough assessment of such artisan, we do this through verification which includes checking their phone number, NIN and business registration number. This verification is done through our partner, YouID, which gives a verdict before they are onboarded.”

Adeboboye, who said The Nest was the proprietary firm that did the development, stressing that, it was the firm that built the platform from inception, “we subsequently got a new team to push the platform to where it is now.”

Admitting that it was very rough at the beginning years, he said the management had to come up with different marketing strategies, including road shows to push the brand to the market.

According to him there is also a plan to move to neighbouring countries within the next five years and then globally. On his part, Data Analyst, Mobolaji Anthony, said the firm has made progress significantly and positioned adequately well to benefit for the global ecommerce market put at $6 trillion, which is open to everybody.

Anthony said checks showed that people are fast leaving local way of shopping and moving online very fast, stressing that data has revealed that about 2.71 billion people use eCommerce daily, of which 2.2 per cent of them shop internationally, “reason we are confident that MarketBuddy has a role to play in that space.”

At the unveiling, Head of Customer Experience Transactworld Digital Services, Cynthia Alabi, said African artisans and small businesses encounter numerous hurdles: limited access to funding, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of market visibility among others.

According to her, platforms like MarketBuddy have come and are fast transforming the landscape by simplifying e-commerce, broadening market access, and equipping entrepreneurs with data-driven insights to make smarter decisions.