Organic Shoppe isn’t your average e-commerce store. It’s unabashedly pro-healthy living, pushes for sustainable agriculture, and presents itself as involved in social justice causes. This combination of concerns is usually enough to attract health-conscious, ethically driven customers, as it has for Organic Shoppe.
Those interests have also put this online shop in the national spotlight, as one of Nigeria’s top emerging businesses. In July, Organic Shoppe landed a spot on ConnectNigeria’s list of Top 100 SMEs, a selection of the foremost rising ventures of the country’s business space. The fact that its place on the list was secured through popular votes, it’s safe to say that it has a fairly large following- including loyal customers who vouch for the work it does.
Selling fresh agricultural produce and organic oils online isn’t the first thought that crosses a would be entrepreneurs’ mind in our part of the world. It has taken a founder with a deep interest in healthy food and physical wellbeing to drive Organic Shoppe past its early days, and into growth territory. It’s the sort of mould Moyo Salami, Organic Shoppe’s founder, falls into. She remembers starting off in 2012 by making coconut oils for her family and neighbours, after learning of its health benefits.
“By 2013, I was selling on an e-commerce site,” she explained, in an interview with ConnectNigeria. “But I knew there were more health products than just coconut oil, and I wanted to know more. So I applied to the New York Institute of Aromatherapy, and studied for two years to be an aromatherapist.”
Salami went on to incorporate her new business, Organic Shoppe, in 2015. It has grown to become a supplier of non-GMO (Genetically Modified Organism), healthy living products.
As a proper e-commerce store, Organic Shoppe does all of its selling online. The products on sale at its site include herbs and spices, fresh farm products, dried food, food supplements, natural hair and skin care products, natural oils and fragrances. Buyers can have a look at these items on the website before placing an order for them. They can even request samples of these products (which they’ll pay for) if they’d like to get a feel of them first.
Purchases can be made on the Organic Shoppe site from anywhere in the world. Products can be shipped across Nigeria within 2-4 days of an order being placed. If the drop off destination is in Lagos, purchases can reach the customers’ doorstep in 24 hours or less. Goods can also be dispatched to locations elsewhere in the world.
There’s an opening for merchants who want to sell their organic commodities on Organic Shoppe. If their products are adjudged as good enough for the platform, they’ll be sold via the site to a large online potential customer population.
Interestingly, Organic Shoppe is already expanding its presence beyond Nigeria. It has just recently set up a site for the US market; its operators say they’re targeting markets in the western world with the Nigerian version of the healthy organic lifestyle shop.
Organic Shoppe extends its concern for social well-being beyond its inventory, to philanthropy. It has a stated policy of devoting 8% of its profits to charity, to help feed children without means.
Click here to visit Organic Shoppe.
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