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My Case About POD and KOS

nwaord
So, I have seen several posts that many marketers have written about POD since KOS/Konga stopped it.
 
Most people have done a good job of tackling POD as the cause of all their woes and how it can’t ever work.
 
Blah. Blah. Blah
 
I know that we all have different experiences and perception about this topic.
 
But here is my opinion expressed in the 3 points below:
 
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(1) Stop Comparing Nigerian Online Businesses to Alibaba, Amazon Etc

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When the issue of POD is raised, the first thing most people do is to begin to compare businesses like Amazon, Alibaba and other huge E-commerce businesses from developed countries.
 
The truth is those companies don’t need POD.
 
The economy and systems of the countries where they are based does not warrant it.
 
Take the US for instance, do you know people used to buy products over the phone by dictating the details of their credit cards to a stranger?
 
If not, find some 1960, 1970, 1980 magazines and check the adverts in them.
 
That is the level of trust they have about merchants over there.
 
Plus, these people have solid payment systems like Paypal, Credit cards etc in place
 
If you buy something on Amazon for instance and you did not get it, contact them to say you did not get the package you ordered for and your refund will be processed immediately. No stories.
 
Try the same on Jumia or any of the Nigerian online websites
 
Recently, I confidently bought products worth N800,000 on Amazon.com and paid.
 
Truth is, I won’t do the same when buying from a merchant I don’t know on Jumia or Konga.
 
I will only make prepay purchases for low priced products on Jumia or Konga.
 
But with high priced purchases, I will only order via POD or else, I will find an offline store to buy from
 
And that is because, many things could go wrong with the purchase.
 
And you will be left alone struggling with Interswitch and customer care of banks and the Ecommerce companies
 
Same won’t happen with Amazon or Alibaba
 
We have an economy that is crippled with poor power supply, poor internet, poor security and poor financial systems.
 
So, please stop the comparison.
 
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(2) POD is not bad. It is the infrastructure that is bad.

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I used to be against the POD model before I went fully into it and that is why I am going to make this next statement.
“Personally, I think anyone who says POD is a bad business model does not do it or they do not look at their numbers or they are just dumb.”
This is based on my first hands experience.
 
WHY?
 
POD, also known as cash on delivery is one of the most powerful offers you can make to a customer that lets him feel he has all the power.
 
It also tackles the biggest objection that Nigerians have with buying online which is TRUST.
 
I actually learnt about POD initially from Gary Halbert when he was talking about irresistible offers in one of his newsletters.
 
As a marketer, I believe in data, not hearsay.
 
And here is what my data says about using POD or not.
 
Late last year, I intentionally did a marketing campaign to promote an info-product selling for just N7500 and split tested it.
 
I spent N300,000 on the advert and split tested it.
 
NOTE: This was cold traffic (on dailypost.ng) direct to a sales page.
 
50% of the traffic went to page where people had to pay before getting the product.
 
The remaining 50% went to a page where I was selling the same info product to be delivered as a physical package an additional N2500 for shipping making it N10,000
 
Here are the results:
 
Overall, each page got approximately 8000 clicks
 
Page 1 (Prepay offer) got 17 sales
 
Page 2 (POD offer with N2500 shipping) got 308 orders
(NOTE: the image shown at the top of this page is the email notifications for the new orders)
 
Here are the final results:
 
Page 1 (prepay) – immediate N7500 X 17 sales = N127,500
 
Page 2 (POD) – Out of the 308 orders, we could only confirm 214 orders.
 
So, we shipped 214 orders at an average shipping fee of N1,500 per order (N321,000)
 
Out of the 214 shipped, only 150 customers actually paid.
 
This means 64 was returned.
 
But we collected N1,500,000 in gross
 
By the time you remove cost of shipping, we are left with N1,179,000 in net profits.
 
Now, compare the results from the prepay offer to the POD offer.
 
Prepay (N127,000) to POD (N1,179,000)
 
Yes, we got 64 returns.
 
But when you look at the final numbers, you will see that the POD offer trumps all.
 
This is not the only test I have done for this.
 
I have also used physical products as well.
 
With my offers, here is what my stats for POD usually fall to
 
Out of 100 people who place orders, approximately 70% of them confirm it for us to ship
 
Out of the 70 that we ship, approx 30% get returned.
 
I am always looking at these numbers.
 
POD might not be good for a really big business like Konga.
 
I don’t know. I don’t run one
 
But from my experience, it is the friend of any small business who is serious.
 
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ABOUT BAD INFRASTRUCTURE…

 
I think the cause of most returns come from the courier companies that handle the delivery to customers.
 
The delivery company I was using is KOS
 
And God!
 
They suck really badly!
 
I only stuck with them because our numbers are good enough and because they cover most of Nigeria.
 
Returns are reduced when their is speed of delivery.
 
But with KOS, you can just forget that.
 
In many instances, we have shipped a product to a customer within Lagos (which is where we ship from) and the product takes up to 5 days to get to the customer.
 
We also found out that in many cases, they don’t even make any attempt to deliver the product.
 
The lazy delivery men just say “several unsuccessful attempts have been made to reach the customer on phone”
 
Meanwhile, when we call the customer whose lines will be magically available, they will tell us that they haven’t gotten any call from KOS.
 
Isn’t that funny?
 
And if you want to do the impossible, just try to reach KOS customer service on phone.
 
Earlier this year, I did something awesome.
 
I made a partnership with someone who stayed in Abuja to help us with all our POD orders to Abuja.
 
Guess what?
 
We got 90% completed deliveries.
 
The partnership ended because our guy had to go into another business for himself.
 
The point here is simple.
 
If you can create your own delivery system for maybe lagos alone for instance, this will skyrocket your delivery rates.
 
Again, POD is not the problem.
 
It is the weak infrastructure that is the culprit.
 
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(3) Finally, Use POD to get first time customers, then get them to pay first later on

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Here is another thing that I realized later on which made me love POD.
 
As I said before, the main objection that POD tackles is trust issues.
 
So, guess what?
 
When a customer orders for a product from you the first time and you deliver it and he is happy, this is the fastest way to build trust.
 
That is because money have exchanged hands and he is happy.
 
So, when we get a new order from this same customer, we simply tell him to prepay so that he can get his order faster.
 
And almost all of them just ask for our bank account and do a transfer.
 
That is because we used POD to crash the trust issues the first time.
 
So, even when this person wants to place their next order, they just pay first themselves.
 
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CONCLUSION:
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If you already have an audience of people who already trust you and your business, then you may not really need POD.
 
I believe POD shouldn’t be a long term plan for your business but if you use it wisely, you can use it to acquire a lot of customers and then gradually begin to focus on prepaid.
 
Feel free to share your own point of view.
 
PS: I think KOS is right to sack those dummy and ineffective staff of theirs.
 
They tried but the KOS system was just too poor.
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14 Comments

  • by abaraham
    Posted December 2, 2017 3:57 pm 0Likes

    these article is really an eye opener…

    thanks Boss

  • by Mr yemi Akinnagbe
    Posted December 2, 2017 4:01 pm 0Likes

    Mr Toyin Omotosho! You’re absolutely correct about all what you’ve discussed about POD and the methods of building Trust with Customers. Especially, as regards Online transactions within our Country Nigeria!!

    Indeed so many Fraudsters, who are initially into Online SCAM, commonly referred to as Yahoo-Yahoo
    have made the Cyberspace their new scam office!

    Deceiving unsuspecting Nigerians, with too good to be true offers online!!

    May God safe Us in this Country! From those tarnishing the good international image of this great country.

  • by Blessing uwadineke
    Posted December 2, 2017 4:21 pm 0Likes

    Quite insightful, thank you.

  • by Adore designs
    Posted December 2, 2017 4:54 pm 0Likes

    Thank you for this, I just started my fashion house and most of my clients are first time and to assure them that what they saw online is not a scam I tell them pay on delivery but my logistics company jandtogidi also said no POD and I had to change them . Most client that prepay only pay for outfits below 5000 but pay on delivery have done 30,000 payment. I think all these sme Needs to understand our economy still needs pod.

  • by Yusuf Adebayo
    Posted December 2, 2017 5:06 pm 0Likes

    May God bless you my brother. I really appreciate you for hitting the nail at the head. This is really a real life situation statistics that led you to a scientific experiment which has been proven by this wonderful real life instances you gave. I really love your post, thanks for opening eyes of KOS Deliveries themselves if they are lucky to read this so that they can make positive changes in their management system. I believe all of us can learn from this mistakes of KOS Deliveries as the whole point of this debate is constructive criticism if we dare to go into e-commerce fully in the future. Thanks a lot my brother

  • by Godswill
    Posted December 3, 2017 6:58 am 0Likes

    A very insightful post. I agree with you that POD should not be a long term plan.
    Thanks for sharing Boss.

  • by Akanbi Ayodeji
    Posted December 3, 2017 5:01 pm 0Likes

    Hello madam Omotosho, you are really doing a great job and i love the way you encourage people especially the youth to make themselves usefulI ,I do read all the messages you used to sent to my box but at times i get scared on how am going to start anf if it s going to work or not but honestly i will love to do the online biussness .What do you advice?

  • by Ezekiel Oluwafemi
    Posted December 3, 2017 8:02 pm 0Likes

    Good write up. The problem is: which delivery company is the best in Nigeria. I have used the one someone told me is the Best and I can tell that they are worst.
    They promised 2-5 business day and they will not even make any attempt to send the product out of Lagos and customers will be distopping me.

    Please, can anyone recommend the best apart from Ace, KOS, EDS. And is it advisable to use DHL for customer who want fast delivery?

    • by Oyedepo John
      Posted December 6, 2017 7:02 am 0Likes

      Try Cedar Express, though not perfect but they are trying.

      DHL is expensive. If the customer wants fast delivery, let him/her pay, then use GIGL.

  • by Ayodeji Oladeji Charles
    Posted December 5, 2017 11:22 am 0Likes

    This is awesome and eye opening.

  • by Paul Olabanji
    Posted December 7, 2017 3:40 pm 0Likes

    I don’t think I have ever read anything so real and eye-opening this month as this! I can feel love and passion from your write up. Thanks a lot!

  • by Wale
    Posted December 9, 2017 10:16 pm 0Likes

    Great information. I will not mind having your phone number. I have a business to discuss with you and I will need your guidance.

    Regards

  • by Philip
    Posted December 20, 2017 4:14 pm 0Likes

    Nice Update thanks for the post. enjoyed it

  • by Tayo Adegoke
    Posted January 26, 2018 10:47 pm 0Likes

    Toyin Omotoso, you’re are a real Master. Thanks for that master piece information on POD &PBD? I had a bad experience with Courier Plus not pleasant enough. For now go to IFEX courier at Jibowu Bus stop to register as an online Merchant. You’re bound to shout Hurray.

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