Critical logistics infrastructure must be put in place if the full potential of e-commerce in Nigeria must be realised, this is according to the Managing Directors of African Courier Express, ACE Tunde Kehinde and Ercin Eksin. The duo who pioneered e-commerce in Nigeria as co-founders of the online retailer, Jumia.com said that while e-commerce will play significant roles in the economic boom that is expected in the coming years, logistics presents a unique challenge that must be tackled before the objective will be attained.

“The Nigerian e-commerce market presents unique challenges. Nigerians are not as trusting of online retail as most westerners, and this means that most online retail in Nigeria is pay-on-delivery. In Nigeria, this leads to logistics issues concerning finding customers at a time when they have the cash for their purchases, and issues surrounding cash remittance to the merchant. For many companies, the difficulty of mitigating this logistical challenges have been a barrier that keeps them from effectively pursuing e-commerce,” said the duo in a media chat recently.

“These are the conditions that led us to create Africa Courier Express (ACE), a company that aims to completely redefine the way e-commerce is handled, by placing focus on creating a technological infrastructure and adapting processes that will allow Nigerian – and by extension African e-commerce to grow stronger,” they added.

According to them, “ACE’s technology, all developed in-house by talented, young, entrepreneurial minds, allows us to provide merchants with more details and information about their shipments – enabling them to make better business decisions. ACE manages tasks with a multi-faceted technological system that can be adapted to meet merchants where they are.

“Whether by use of a full API integration, managed by ACE, or through a unique Pick-Up-Tool created in-house, orders are inputted into and subsequently tracked throughout ACE’s unique system.

On a customized merchant dashboard, merchants have access to detailed, real-time order tracking, and a top-up payment system that allows merchants to control their business. Merchants receive automatically-generated weekly reports that allow them to keep track of everything they’re doing with ACE from when a package is sent to when they receive their cash.

Integrated into the system are advanced proof-of-payment structures, part of what allows ACE to remit cash to merchants within 48 hours of delivery. All of these features are available not only from the computer, but also from one of several mobile apps created in-house by ACE to make managing their logistics process even smoother.”

They further explained that, “Bringing this level of service and control to Nigeria has allowed ACE to reach unprecedented levels across the market. In less than two years, ACE has reached a successful delivery rate of 85 per cent, meaning that of all packages that any merchant attempts to deliver, 85 per cent will reach their target, be paid for, and the payments will be remitted to the merchant.

This is 25 per cent more than the industry average in the same market, larger even than the delivery rates achieved by other big-name players such as DHL. Most importantly, ACE is doing it through use of multi-systemic technology – capitalizing on Nigeria’s growing mobile internet preference.”