This week we feature Lola Olusola, who we actually spoke to in April 2013.
At the time she was excited about moving back to Nigeria to launch her
online fashion label, so we decided to follow up to see how things have
been since she moved back. This interview is particularly interesting
for people who are thinking about moving back to start up businesses in
Nigeria. Hear in her own words the challenges of registering and running
a business in Nigeria, her thoughts on the Ecommerce revolution in
Nigeria, what she thinks about the ‘Nigerian Online Shopper’, her views
on the state of development in the country, and many other tips and
advice you certainly do not want to miss!We spoke to you in April 2013, why was your first interview anonymous?
No particular reason. I thought the earlier MBTN interviews were conducted anonymously, so my name never featured. Even though I wasn’t particularly pushing for anonymity, I think it panned out great actually because it meant I didn’t give away too much about the brand as it was yet to launch.
MBTN comment… Hmmm!!
When we caught up with you last time, you were excited about moving back to Nigeria to launch your fashion label, so how have things been since?
For the record, my name is Lola Olusola, and I moved back to Nigeria in May 2013 to set up an online store called Ella Matthew (www.ellamatthew.com) that retails women’s clothing online. When I moved back, I was really excited (and I still am). Things have kicked off on a great note. The website has launched and is accepting and delivering orders. I do think my goals and priorities have been adjusted to reflect the realities of what it takes to set up and run a business on the ground in Nigeria.
Interesting! Really want to hear more. So when did you launch the brand officially.
Ella Matthew launched November 25th last year and a lot went into setting it up. Like I mentioned earlier, I moved back in May 2013, and if you remember, my plan was to launch the business in July, but given the way things work in Nigeria, it took a bit longer. Supposedly, simple things such as business name registration, setting up logistics and organising photo-shoots ended up taking a lot more time than I’d anticipated. But I was adamant that the foundation had to be right and it was worth the extra time investment and looking back, I’m glad I took this route. Those extra four months really gave me the time I needed to really understand how things work in Nigeria, particularly in Lagos. And it gave my staff time to really get used to our systems and have a more in-depth knowledge of the business and products.
What did the launch process involve?
It involved a lot of things; Things that people wouldn’t necessarily even think about. From customer surveys and focus groups at the very start to drawing creative concepts, budgeting and financial management, photography, branding and packaging, logistics, product and supply chain processes and other things such as website design, development, project management and training. Thankfully, from my previous working history, I had a good working knowledge of how things would work.
I think I had a small challenge with quality control and this is probably what delayed process the most. I returned quite a few things to be redone. People don’t necessarily understand why I wanted things to be as close to perfect as possible but for me, all these little things were going to matter in the overall customer experience and management of operations.
A lot of people want to move back to Nigeria to set up businesses, so can you talk a little bit about the process? How did you go about recruiting staff? Setting up office space, and all that?
I mean, every business is different but no matter what your venture, determination is key. I was determined that there was nothing stopping this from working. Things are not so straightforward here and you just really have to make up your mind that you will get things done despite the challenges. The other really important thing is your support network i.e. the people that you know and can trust. Having people around who believe in what you are doing and provide support and advice is very invaluable. This has probably been my best asset so far in Nigeria. So for example when I was organising the photo-shoot for the launch, a friend helped rather last minute to be the makeup artist for my models (my cousin actually helped organise the models), I found the studio that we used through a friend, I found the photographer through a friend, I’ve employed 2 people and both were recommendations through friends. Even our office arrangement is also from a hook up.
With things like marketing, again friends and family have been very crucial; from simple word of mouth to helping to get discounts on some of the campaigns we’ve done. I think it’s really important to have a strong support network. Most of the friends I speak about here are actually people I knew from England, so it’s important to keep both networks strong i.e. both home and abroad. It’s really easy for money to go in Nigeria; I’d definitely advice business people when spending in Nigeria to be very conscious of that. Get whatever you can for as free or cheap as you can.
Ok so you guys have gone live, but how is the Nigerian market responding to what you have to offer? After all this is a different market to what you’d been used to in England.
I should boast a little and say that so far we have not had any returns, so customers are happy with the products they are buying from us. We are getting really great feedback also which is good for us. When I was coming into this, it was really important to offer an experience to customers that is similar to what I have always gotten when purchasing overseas. A lot of people have said that Nigerians are happy to settle for less and that I shouldn’t have to worry about quality or presentation but I completely disagree with this notion.
The customer experience is absolutely important, and the typical Nigerian woman realises that she has choices, so if you are not providing the best product or quality of service particularly with online labels, then she will happily go elsewhere to do her online shopping. When a customer comes on to our website, we give them an aesthetically pleasing website, and also do our best to ensure the site never goes down.
In terms of experience we keep customers fully updated by text and email from the moment they order online, to the moment they receive their goods. We follow up to make sure that they are happy. And the customers are seeing these little efforts, the little details and giving feedback to that note. Customers have also been great to email us suggestions and ideas to take on board for our future collections.
This brings me to another point about the Nigerian online shopper. Most people prefer to pay only after they’ve seen, touched and inspected their goods. So if you want to come to Nigeria to set up an online store, make sure you give people the option to pay on delivery. 75% of our orders are paid for on delivery i.e. either by cash or via a PoS terminal.
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