First time I heard of Taafoo, I was in my third year in the university. It seemed like a pretty good deal way back then, and all my classmates got their girlfriends gifts from there. I checked the site out, seemed nice, but back then, luckily enough, I had no girlfriends so I didn’t see the need to use their services just yet. Time passed and so did the idea of Taafoo as an ecommerce site, I had found Amazon.
Then came the other sites, 3stiches (which was later added to Konga Fashion), then Dealdey, I loved it so much because of the restaurant deals, almost all my orders on that site are still food related, Jumia and Konga came in later and they officially changed the playing field.

I remember a time when ecommerce was a strange word. And only very few online stores existed. Those were hard times.

I would go though sites like Amazon and Tigerdirect, wishing I could get my hands on everything I could afford. And those were hard times. Somewhere along the line, I found Circuit Atlantic, it was a compromise

I had never really thought about it, not until I read the Walmart book by one of its former VP’s, can’t remember its name now. But then, about a month later and I step into Shoprite Ikeja and I’m taken by surprise at the similarities in open view.

From the promotion of friendly in-store staff, to the checkout management, to the lowest price inventory approach… it’s a long list, but all things considered, I believe what we have here is an attempt to incorporate a successful business model.

After much thought as to whether or not I should write this, I’ve decided it might be best for someone out there.

As a web designer I have hosted sites for five years now, and my very first host was Utiware which I found through a Google search at the time.

First, you would need to understand the general problems with Nigerian web hosting companies before you go on to read this so you don’t get all biased.

I remember my first purchase with Circuit Atlantic. It was a desperate measure to get an HP laptop with really nice specs from CircuitCity. At the time I had no idea how this was supposed to go, I did not have a credit card and other sites I had checked that advertised purchasing services felt shady.