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Poor patronage: Courier companies diversify into e-commerce

By BusinessNews Staff on July 28, 2014

As the number of companies rendering courier services in the country increase, many of the operators have resolved to diversify into e-commerce business.

They say this will enable them to tap into the opportunities the Internet has to offer and explore other avenues of expansion.

The President, Association of Courier Operators in Nigeria, Mr. Siyanbola Oladapo, in an interview with our correspondent, said members of the group had been complaining of low patronage as unlicensed operators were reportedly coming into the business; poor economic conditions and the use of better technology by competitors.

According to him, the patronage of companies enlisted on the capital markets has dropped because they no longer print bulk mails; rather they prefer to produce annual reports in compact discs.

In addition, it was learnt that the emergence of e-commerce companies, which were also operating courier services, had brought about fierce competition for them, knowing full well that it would be difficult to restrict their activities.

The companies are able to harness the online resources to market their business, using email marketing, social media, search engine and viral marketing, using data mining.

The president said, “There is no commission to regulate our activities, because we are still operating under the Nigerian Postal Service. We are limited by what we can do. What we have found out is the absence of regulation also gives room for quacks in the industry.

He also said, “With the advent of Information and Communication Technology, we realise that a lot of things are cropping up. People have been sending greeting cards before but nobody sends greeting cards again; so, we too need to move with time.

“Many have been complaining of low patronage because of the ICT, but what they don’t know is that the ICT can also enhance the delivery system. The other companies are coming up with some ingenuity.”

The Head of Courier Regulatory Department, Dr. Simon Emeje, said out of a total of 291,000 registered and licensed courier companies, about 218, 250 were still running their businesses.

He said that the existing companies had been compelled to obtain licences for operation, adding that more were expected to register.

Apart from the increase in revenue that would enable operators to meet up with overhead cost, Oladapo said diversifying into e-commerce would create more jobs.

[Punch]

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