How to Sell Online: 10 Alternatives You Can Try

Imagine reaching over a million people to sell products online. The thought alone is enough to make a business owner jumpy and excited. But what if you could make the thought into a reality?

With the abundance of options to promote your online store, all you need to know is what strategy works on each platform. If you aim to elevate your sales by 2024, we’ll show you some actionable steps to sell online with ten alternatives.

Sell Products on Popular Online Marketplaces

Several marketplaces offer competitive advantages for merchants to sell products online; you will miss out if you aren’t participating.

Moreover, you can promote your products with an online store on popular marketplaces like Jumia, Konga, and Jiji.

Jumia Nigeria

Jumia has become a leading force in the ecommerce space in Africa, offering various products such as health and beauty home and office items. 

If you want to sell with Jumia, you can tie your growth strategies with social media like Facebook, where over 60 million people are interested in Jumia. You may have to learn how Facebook ad targeting works in the long run.

Jumia Dashboard

The beauty of Jumia is that it possesses a dashboard where sellers can gain insights into critical metrics and activities. Regarding Jumia, you don’t have to install specific plugins to get insights about your customers; you can manage everything on your store through your dashboard.

Additionally, you can perform any activity through your dashboards, like adding or removing products and managing your orders.

Below are some additional actions you can perform:

• Track your inventory and update your product listings.
• Track your orders within the Jumia network.
• Monitor sales performance with customer metric tools.

With the unique tools and opportunities that Jumia provides, they charge a commission. For every product you sell, you’ll pay a specific commission (see the image below).

How to Sell Products on Jumia

Below, we will list some important tips on how to start selling products on Jumia.

Some of them include the following:

• Insert essential keywords in your product title and descriptions and titles. For example, if you sell only T-shirts, let it appear in your title and description and include your unique selling point (USP).

• Deliver quality products consistently to get word-of-mouth marketing.

• Adhere to Jumia’s guidelines.

Also, don’t forget to use copywriting and sales strategies in your store.

Konga

With an average of 5 million monthly visitors, Konga has been selected as Africa’s most innovative and admired company. In a recent survey published earlier this year by Digipunits, the majority chose Konga as highly responsive, ambitious, and bullish in its technology deployment to scale up operations.

The survey, which consisted of Gen-Zs, millennials, and boomers, showed that young people are interested in Konga. During the COVID-19 lockdown, Konga ensured its prices were heavily discounted and products were delivered faster. It also supplied some families with essential food items, with the delivery being free of charge.

Amongst the products to sell on Konga are electronics, home and kitchen items, mobile phones, computers and accessories, phones and tablets, and fashion. You can start selling online with other products, but those are the most popular on Konga.

How to Sell Products on Konga

Below, we will list some of the tips to have in mind when you are starting to sell on Konga.

Some of them are the following ones:

• Be Strategic With Pricing: Your products don’t have to be the cheapest to sell, but it should be fair. Except you already have a brand identity outside of Konga. Get excellent reviews to increase sales, use strategic pricing, and watch your sales rise.

• Aggressively Market Your Products: Marketing your products on social media is a great way to gain more brand awareness and conversions. Opening a shop in Konga doesn’t guarantee sales; you must keep promoting.

In addition to that, don’t forget to offer excellent customer service and packaging. Great packaging appeals to customers, but excellent customer service keeps your customers returning for more.

Jiji.ng

Selling your products to the audience in Jiji is strategic if you do it right.

The following are ways to attain more sales on Jiji:

• Competitive Pricing: Looking at your competitor’s pricing on Jiji will give you an understanding of what price suits your products. Set it too high, get fewer customers, and set it too low, and it may seem low quality. You can also add a product for free to get customers to buy.
• Clear and Concise Description: Using the right keyword in the product description will help you gain visibility. So make sure your description uses copywriting that is clear and concise. 
• High-Quality Images: Use appealing and attractive images of your products. This will make you stand out and attract customers easily.

If you can respond to a customer within a minute, then go ahead because some people change their minds quickly and will move on to the next vendor.

Sеll on Social Media Platforms

You have to find the right social media platform to build your brand and sell your products. Use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to market and sell.

Facebook

Facebook is the leading social media platform in terms of users, with over 2.4 million monthly users. It doesn’t seem Facebook is slowing down soon, and with those numbers, you should choose Facebook to sell online. 

The best is you can choose from a wide range of products to sell, and there will still be at least a million people who will need it. Thanks to its insights and ad targeting feature, Facebook remains the best advertising tool.

How to Sell on Facebook

There are a few ways to start selling your products on Facebook.

The following are tips to start selling and growing your target audience there:

• Post evergreen content: Evergreen content allows your customers to keep finding value in your post. Post once and get engagement forever. All you have to do is remind your audience about the content.
  
• Create a Facebook Group: Over 400 billion people use Facebook groups, and since the beginning, Facebook Has always been about community building. 

Therefore, once you start getting engagement, you can create a tight-knit group to drive more sales. You can create or join a highly active group relevant to your business goals.

Facebook targeting isn’t only limited to ads. You can also target organically with its organic targeting feature. This tool is helpful to those with at least a thousand followers because your post needs to target at least 20 people.

Instagram

Like Facebook, Instagram is one of the most popular and engaged platforms. It has over 2.4 million monthly active users and gained 100 million users in the previous quarter alone. It’s no surprise as Mark Zuckerberg heads it alongside Facebook.

How to Increase Your Reach on Instagram

People engage with what’s great, but how will they know you are great if they don’t know about your existence? On Instagram, strategic engagement works. For example, being the first to comment on influencers’ posts in your niche will expose you to comment readers who are interrelated to your niche.

It’s one thing to have outstanding content with an unattractive feed. It’s another thing to have an excellent-looking feed with terrible content. It’s best to have both quality content and an attractive-looking feed.

Also, your bio should clearly emphasize what it is you offer. It should also indicate a clear call to action. What’s the most important thing you want your audience to do? You could then visit your website and include the link in your bio. Also, insert essential keywords.

X (Twitter)

Twitter’s engagement and revenue have been a hot topic of discussion lately due to Musk’s takeover. Even though Twitter’s growth is being questioned, Would It go down the drain? 

We don’t think so, as it is still the leading conversation driver. It’s a place to find out the latest gist and to get our voice heard. So you want to get on Twitter because everyday people have something to discuss or a trend to jump on.

The best way to grow on Twitter is to engage, engage, and engage. Post quality content but engage more. That way, you get faster reach, and if you comment more on meaningful conversations, you’ll get noticed faster.

You should engage with the following:

• Competitors;
• Existing followers;
• Consistent retweeters;
• Influencers;
• Customers or clients;
• Brand advocates;
• News sources;
• Industry influencers;
• Prospects and leads.

When you engage and provide valuable comments, you inform Twitter’s algorithm that you are active and worth following, increasing your visibility.

Build Your Own Ecommerce Website

Build your ecommerce website to sell your products directly to customers. There are two routes to take when building an ecommerce website. You can either start from scratch or use an SaaS ecommerce platform like NEXT BASKET.

The platform allows you to set up a store within 72 hours, enabling you to run your store hands-off. Next Basket comes with a readymade theme that is easy to customize. All you have to do is update your header and footer, figure out your site’s navigation, and create pages from your home, contact, and about pages to your return policy pages.

Setting up the site at once might be too much for you, so you may take a break before adding products. This way, you have more patience to handle the process. It may get tiring or frustrating if you try to do it simultaneously. Add all your products and their respective names and descriptions at this stage. 

It is also important to set up your payment processing, because without it, there will be no way to receive payments. Thankfully, Nigeria has some tremendous international payment gateway options for your business, allowing you to accept payment in Nigeria and other countries. 

If it’s possible to add shipping to your ecommerce website, go for it. This way, it is easy to focus on marketing and selling directly. If the platform offers logistics services, that would be great, too.

Classified Ads Websites

Another option to start selling online in Nigeria is to use a classified ads website, which allows you to list and sell your products.

Below, we will review two popular classified ads websites (OLX and Efritin) in Nigeria.

OLX

OLX is Nigeria’s leading classified platform, with 50 million monthly visitors. Posting ads on OLX to sell is free and straightforward.

With OLX, you can share your business posts with many people rushing to buy the product. It’s also an opportunity to sell items you don’t want to use anymore.

In order to start selling on OLX, you need to do the following:

• Register on OLX: Visit OLX to register with your email and password. Otherwise, you can register via Google or Facebook.

• Create Your Ad: Tap on “Post Your Ad” on the top menu, then select categories. Enter the ad title, description, price, and photos, and choose the ad location. You should preview the post before sending it out.

• Verify Your Phone Number: You will receive an SMS from OLX with a 4-digit verification code. Enter the code to verify your number and start posting. 

After posting your ad, it will be live for only 45 days.

EfritinNG

Like its name, EfritinNG has become a one-stop point for everything in Nigeria. You can get everything from regular products to properties, so it is an opportunity for business owners to sell.

Unless your products degrade any race or are pornographic, you are welcome to EfritinNG.

WhatsApp Business

Use WhatsApp Business to connect with customers and sell your products. A WhatsApp Business shop is a platform to help you trade efficiently and quickly by building a catalog. 

Customers can choose what they want to buy from your catalog and send it to you.

With a WhatsApp catalog, you may get the following:

• Photo Gallery: showcase your products.
• vCard: potential customers can save your business info as a vCard file.
• Social: showcase your social media handles to prove your legitimacy further .
• Services listing: like the products, you can list your services, too.
• Payments: state your accepted payment methods in your WhatsApp shop.

Facebook allows you to connect your WhatsApp Business account to your Facebook ad account, allowing you to create awareness or sales outside WhatsApp. Also, WhatsApp bc and community features are excellent features that enable you to create awareness within your local network.

Online Auctions

Another popular place to sell your products in Nigeria are the online auctions. With them, you can sell your products through platforms like BidOrBuy Nigeria or Kobobid.

Kobobid is a leading online penny auction platform that allows you to bid on items and purchase at a low price.

Dropshipping

Partner with a supplier to sell their products without holding inventory. You can also be a supplier to drop shippers. By getting several drop shippers, you can increase your profits immensely.

Either way, dropshipping benefits suppliers and dropshippers — you can be both. To start drop shipping, you must think of great product ideas that people will readily buy.

The best products are daily used products like handbags, clothes, home and kitchen items, and many more. You can see our complete guide on how to start a dropshipping business to get started.

Affiliate marketing

Partner with other businesses to promote their products and earn a commission on sales. Affiliate marketing, like dropshipping, allows you to sell other people’s products or be a supplier for others.

In the case of affiliate marketing, you will earn a commission on sales, but you will be selling products for other brands. On the other hand, dropshipping allows you to sell other people’s products under your brand name.

Both are excellent opportunities for suppliers to increase their profit or brand awareness, while for drop shippers and affiliate marketers, they are a great source of income.

The following are essential tips for affiliate marketers:

• Use different affiliate partners: Use different partners because there is the possibility that one of your affiliate associates could close their program or change their commission rates. For example, in April 2020, the Amazon Associates program cut its commission from 8% to 3%. 
• Build a loyal fan base: You may be selling other people’s products under their names, but you can also build a brand name for yourself. For example, Gadgetify, although not an affiliate marketer, sells Apple and Samsung products.

As you keep growing, your audience will start making recommendations on what they want. They will want someone to help them get products quickly and at a discount, and you will be the go-to person they can think of.

Email Marketing

Build an email list and use it to promote and sell your products. An email newsletter allows you to build a community by providing continuous value and later selling to them.

Below are some valuable tips in email marketing:

• Always keep your email short and sweet.
• Have a fixed posting schedule, i.e., bi-weekly, Monthly etc.
• Include visuals.
• Use an attention-grabbing headline.
• Use CTAs to drive conversions.

Email marketing has been a tremendous source of community support and sales for brands year in and year out.

Mobile apps

Build a mobile app for your business to sell your products and engage with customers. Ensure you have nurtured and grown a community and audience through your website so that you can make offers to get them to download your app.

Once customers are on the app, they will have to spin a wheel to get your reward, and it’s time-bound. They must grab some specific items within the time frame; otherwise, they lose that offer.

Conclusion

Staying informed about the latest ecommerce trends and technological advancements is vital. Continuous learning and adaptation to new tools and platforms keep your online business agile and well-positioned for sustained success.
Success in online selling hinges on understanding customer needs, building trust, and delivering value consistently. With the right tools, mindset, and dedication, anyone can navigate the dynamic world of e-commerce and unlock the full potential of selling online.