Nigerian Software Developer Tackles Pandemic Limitations By Creating E-Commerce Company To Help Nigerian Businesses Sell Online

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many Black businesses to transition to online services.

Tarebi Alebiosu, the founder of QShop, created a platform that provides businesses with a simple way to build e-commerce websites.

“QShop is a ‘DIY’ (do it yourself) platform for creating your e-commerce site in minutes,” according to its website. “With QShop, you can receive online payments, track inventory, upload unlimited products, set your shipping rates, and much more in just a few minutes.”

According to How We Made It In Africa, Alebiosu’s mission to suit the needs of Nigerian and African business owners sparked after the COVID-19 pandemic limited businesses to online services.

“I was the managing director for a successful software development company, Yoke Solutions, and was in the process of looking for funders for an events tech company we had started a few years prior called Sugar.ng,” Alebiosu said.

“However, when the pandemic hit, it was clear the uncertainty around events and what faced us in the future would halt those plans.”

Many calls from companies needing assistance transitioning their businesses online were coming in. Referrals to options such as Ecwid and Shopify were too expensive and complex for the smaller companies, which led her team at Yoke to start developing their product model.

“At the end of June 2020, we started working on our minimum viable product and by end of August, we released it to the market,” she said.

About 87 businesses signed up within the first month, but the company continued adjusting the model as some businesses were paying for the services and not making any sales.

“That’s when we realized we needed a free tier offering as well,” she said.

After launching the free model a month after working on it in December 2020, the company gained 2,000 clients by the end of February and a current total of 15,000. Subscribed businesses pay 5,000 naira per month (US$11), 13,000 naira ($29) per quarter, or 50,000 naira ($113) per year. An additional fee is charged for every transaction by the payment partner, such as 1.4% with Flutterwave and 1.5% with Paystack.

With the free tier, QShop makes 4% of every transaction, but no monthly fee is required. Most of QShop’s clients are on the free tier, with only 5% currently using the paid subscription option.