Thoughts:
“Trying to deliver everywhere too soon is how most Ecommerce dreams die.”
“Focus on where you can win today, then expand tomorrow.”
“Fast delivery in 3 cities beats slow delivery in 36 states.”
One of the fastest ways to kill a new Ecommerce business in Nigeria?
Try to deliver to “everywhere in Nigeria” when you can barely handle Lagos.
It’s like saying you want to marry all the daughters in the village…
And you haven’t even finished paying bride price for the first one.
I remember a guy I met at a logistics hub in Lagos.
He had this hot product, everybody wanted it.
But he wanted to “go big” immediately.
Day one, he was delivering to Sokoto, Maiduguri, Calabar… everywhere.
Two months later?
His money was tied up in failed deliveries, return trips, overstocking and “customer no pick call.”
Waybill & Logistics fees swallowed his profits.
Meanwhile, another seller who started the same month focused only on Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt.
His delivery was faster, cheaper, and he kept more customers coming back for more.
The guy trying to “sell everywhere” disappeared.
The one who “focused small” scaled faster than all of us.
The truth is… speed beats size in Nigerian Ecommerce.
Customers don’t care that you can ship from Lagos to Sokoto in 5 days.
They care that you can get their order to them tomorrow.
And if you try to serve everywhere too soon, you end up pleasing nobody.
Because your best customers, the ones in the big cities will leave for someone who delivers faster.
Think of it like Nigerian elections…
Politicianss don’t waste resources in areas they can’t win.
They double down on strongholds first, then expand. That’s how you win.
How to save & make money with your ecommerce deliveries
1. Start With the 3-City Rule
Most new ecommerce owners fail not because their product is bad, but because they spread themselves too thin.
It’s like planting maize across 36 plots of land, but you can only water three.
Those other 33 will dry up while you’re still running around trying to keep up.
That’s what happens when you try to “serve the whole country” from day one.
Your money, energy, and logistics get stretched so far that nothing works well.
Instead, start with Lagos, Abuja, and Rivers.
Why? Because these three alone give you thousands of customers with higher purchasing power, better delivery networks, and a stronger appetite for online buying.
It’s not guesswork – the data shows most online sales in Nigeria come from just a handful of states, and these three are always in the top tier.
Business is a war.
You don’t attack every front at once.
You build strongholds in the easiest, richest territories before expanding.
Lagos is your financial capital.
Abuja is your political and civil servant capital.
Rivers gives you the oil money and high-spending corporate crowd.
Start there, win there, own there.
Focus ads and delivery capacity only on these 3 states for the first 90 days.
Build supplier and logistics relationships that guarantee speed in those locations.
Learn customer buying habits there before touching other markets.
This doesn’t mean you’ll never serve other states – it just means you’ll serve them when your core is unshakable.
Going too wide too early is how people run out of cash by month 3.
But focusing on these cities means nothing if you can’t dominate delivery speed inside them… and that’s where most people trip.
2. Master Delivery Speed Before Expanding
I once had a customer cancel her ₦75,000 order
Not because she changed her mind, but because the item took 5 days to arrive.
That’s the thing about Nigerian buyers…Theyy don’t have patience for “it will get there soon.”
In Lagos, you can order food from Instagram and eat it in an hour.
So why would they wait days for your shoes or blender?
Slow delivery kills trust faster than bad product reviews.
Before thinking about “covering” Kano or Enugu, make sure you can do next-day or even same-day delivery in your main cities.
When customers know you deliver fast, they stop price-shopping and start reordering.
Speed is a competitive weapon.
The more people trust you to deliver fast, the more they’ll choose you over sellers who are ₦5,000 cheaper but take forever.
And here’s the psychology – fast delivery doesn’t just bring satisfaction, it creates surprise, and surprise is addictive.
Partner with at least two reliable courier companies in each city so you’re never stuck.
Set a strict order processing cutoff time (e.g., orders before 12pm go out same day).
Train your team to confirm orders within 30 minutes of payment or COD confirmation.
Speed isn’t free.
If you can’t hit same-day or next-day delivery on every order, focus on your top products or VIP customers first.
Get them addicted to speed, then scale it across your catalogue.
Now, once you’ve got speed in your strongholds… that’s when you can start thinking about expansion
But only if you fund it the smart way.
3. Use Profit From Your Strongholds to Fund Expansion
Expansion sounds sexy… until you realise it’s also the fastest way to go broke.
I’ve seen sellers take loans to cover “nationwide delivery” in month one, only to spend the rest of the year chasing refunds and return shipments.
The dream dies because they scaled with borrowed money before building a profitable base.
The smart move?
Use profit from your top cities to fund entry into new ones.
That way, if a new city fails, your core business is untouched.
Think of your business like a tree.
The trunk (your strongholds) must be thick and healthy before you grow branches.
If you stretch too many thin branches too early, a single storm will snap them.
Run profit reports every 7 – 30 days to see how much you can safely reinvest in expansion.
Test new states with small ad budgets and limited product lines first.
Build a mini logistics partner network in the new city before running ads there.
Yes, expansion can bring prestige.
But prestige without profit is just expensive ego.
You want expansion to feel like pouring fuel on a fire, not trying to start a new one from scratch every month.
And here’s the craziest part…
Even if you “ignore” half the country at first, you can still own the biggest slice of Nigeria’s Ecommerce market.
70% of Ecommerce sales in Nigeria come from the top 5 cities.
So even if you “ignore” half the map at first, you’re still chasing the biggest pie.
But here’s the tricky part…
Focusing on 3 cities only works if you have the right delivery systems in place…
Because if you mess up speed there, no amount of “strategic focus” will save you.
That’s exactly why inside Ecommerce Success Launchpad, I show you step-by-step how to dominate delivery speed in your target cities before scaling anywhere else.
In the Rapid Delivery module, you’ll get:
My exact system for finding and negotiating with the fastest local delivery partners in Lagos, Abuja, and Rivers
A Done-For-You Delivery SOP so your team can process and ship orders same-day without confusion
Scripts for confirming orders quickly so customers are ready when your rider calls
Strategies for reducing failed deliveries…
We even give you city-by-city logistics / delivery agent lists so you don’t waste months testing bad ones.
If you’re tired of bleeding money on “nationwide delivery” that slows you down…It’s time to scale the smart way.
Join Ecommerce Success Launchpad today, get the Rapid Delivery system, and start building your strongholds before you expand
