Homewox.ng has launched to be Nigeria’s biggest online furniture & home furnishings marketplace providing its customers with everything to need to furnish their homes and offices.
According to Jude Ibodje, one of the four co-founders the one stop shop has a huge inventory of furnishings, home appliances, lighting, kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms, artworks and outdoors among others and aims to be the country’s top online shop for iconic furniture, decors and all kinds of home furnishings.
Here is a complete interview we had with them;
What inspired you?
Most importantly, I will say it’s the drive to give convenience to people who shop decorating Items in Nigeria.
We noticed that the few décor stores available online, do not aggregate a representative of what is available in the Nigerian market. Many people want high value items, while many others are simply contented with budget items.
Typically, it could take upwards of two weeks or more to go around Shopping for Furniture Items you really love in Abuja or Lagos. The Odds are, you may never find what you love, so you are forced to settle for something that is close to your choice.
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Then there are states in the country that have very few furniture outlets. The people that live in this areas have decorating needs too.
Now, add this to it. Many Nigerians go abroad to shop furnishings for their own personal use. For they believe that, something as good is not available within the country or that the available few are too pricey.
As a company, we are introducing ourselves into the Nigerian Tech Space with homeWox.ng.
Where do you get your furniture?
We have created partnership with top brands in the country. Many of these companies have been operating for several decades. So they understand the demands and taste of the Nigerian people as well as their budget considerations. The good thing is that these guys, really believe in our offerings.
From our side, we know the importance of having varied assortment available on the site, so we are constantly on the lookout for Brands that will improve our collection.
Who is your competition and how unique are you from them?
We have a lot of them. In every unit of our marketplace, there is usually about 3 – 4 or more that we are competing with. But it’s a really huge market, we are talking of a country with a population nearing 200 million people.
To be frank, none of these guys is as thick as we are in terms of assortment and high value collection. Our Product pricing is highly competitive, and our customer service proposition is also very unique.
Do you have any investors?
You mean external investors? For now, not yet, however, we are mindful of the fact that money always gravitates to good ideas.
Nonetheless, beyond good ideas, how it’s implemented plays a strong role in its final outcome, hence our emphasis on building our processes to run the company in the most efficient and profit oriented manner.
How do you handle your deliveries as most of the items are bulky?
Many of our partners already have their in-house logistics arrangements with fleet of trucks and all other delivery channels as deemed fit by them.
However, we have running contracts on call-off basis with very reputable third party logistics companies that are deployed for instances where our sales partners are unable to deliver orders to clients.
What are your future plans. Any expansion plans to more areas?
We are currently based in Abuja delivering service nationwide in Nigeria. We hope to extend our physical presence to other cities, then to West African countries and God’s willing to the rest of Africa.
What are your biggest challenges?
Being a pioneer marketplace in the Nigeria Home Sector, comes with varied challenges and opportunities. The good thing is that we see them as hurdles to conquer. Slowly and gradually, we are getting over them.
In no particular order, I would say they are Deliveries, Payment, Trust Deficit, an Un-organized Furniture industry and then Customer asset Financing. Not to forget that, internet is still relatively expensive in Nigeria.
Where do you expect to be in the next two years?
Two years seems quite far off, but it’s actually just less than a stone throw relative to our vision to be around for the long haul.
However, we are consistently reviewing or processes to optimize our strengths and reduce to the least possible, our weaknesses.
Thus for us in two years, we hope to be more ingrained in the consciousness of Nigerians through numbers of satisfied and returning happy clients as we march towards being the go-to brand for this sector.
