FoodCo Nigeria launches ecommerce platform, takes on Jumia

May 29, 2020

FoodCo Nigeria has launched its online supermarket during the COVID-19 pandemic. The new e-commerce platform integrates shopping and a payment portal and offers grocery items, takeaway food and books. The service is available in Lagos and Ibadan.

FoodCo operates nine supermarkets in Nigeria, eight of which are in Ibadan. The ninth is in Lagos. As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in April the company launched a delivery service for consumers in Lagos, which offered delivery within two hours. ordering is via Whatsapp.

FoodCo, which also has interests in food manufacturing and the restaurant sector, is marketing its new online platform as Nigeria’s first online supermarket, and as a rival to Jumia. While this is not true none of its bricks and mortar competitors offer an online ordering service. The online supermarket offers a range of imported and domestic products. When we visited the site, it offered 245 SKUs for sale in its food and beverages section.

Trendtype is sceptical that FoodCo’s online service really qualifies as an online supermarket. It is low demand, largely untested and with a very narrow range of goods. It has some appeal during a pandemic when lockdowns and curfews are in place but is no meaningful competition to a bricks and mortar supermarket carrying tens of thousands of SKUs.

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