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Selling and buying in Nigeria could be more transparent, stress-free and less time-consuming as it takes just a click effort to make things happen on www.eclemo,com says chief promoter Clement Ekhator, Vice President, Eclemo Limited.
You have been promoting eClemo for about three months now. How much impact has the website achieved?
About a month ago, we had this press conference and interview with IT edge; these have been very useful. The number of visitors we had on the website has greatly increased ever since. Before, we had about 30,000 visitors but now we have visitors ranging from 40,000 to 50,000 on a daily basis, which is quite huge. We are making a big progress.
Basically, www.eclemo.com offers a meeting point for buyer and seller; since its launch what value has prospective targets audience or the visitors?
We have been getting a lot of complementary letters from visitors expressing their appreciation about customers who have come to their stores to buy things and people who have seen their adverts on eclemo and contacted them by calling them through their number in the advert or by coming to their shop directly to buy what they are selling. For us, we are creating a huge audience for a seller because we have over 40,000 people who visit our website on a daily basis and if you have a store anywhere around here in Ikeja I don’t think you will get up to 40,000 people coming to your store in a day. We give you the unique selling point to put your service across to thousands of people at no cost and you see what the response of customers will be.
Is there a way you get to access whether eClemo.com is making impact?
If you place your advert, we can check on a daily basis or any time you want to see how many people have visited your advert in one day. We have a countdown for every advert on our website.
How do you get the feedback?
We have a statistic of the number of people who visit the website on a daily basis and on monthly basis. We have records of first-time visitors and regular visitors. These are statistics to analyze where we are going and how much progress we are making.
I can sell my used car on eClemo, buy a house from eClemo and even engage the services of musicians for my show. Good value for me. But then, how does eClemo make its money or is the promoter of eClemo doing this as charity?
Business is about profit. In the sense of profit at eClemo.com, we are looking at a long term. In the short term, I mean right now; we are not making money because people are just placing their adverts for free. We have a target as a company. We want to reach that target then we will start charging people who want to place adverts on our website. We are still creating a market, a huge audience for sellers and buyers. We are helping to create the desired transparency in commercial transaction. If you want to buy a Mercedes Benz or any kind of car, you will see ten kinds of the same brand of Mercedes cars, you can check the prices, the features, and make a comparison before you take decision to buy. From your own home or even your office without driving through Lagos or Abuja or Port Harcourt or Kaduna to get a car you are looking for. You can compare features and prices in a very transparent manner.
Apart from advert placement what other values can I get from eClemo; can I do dating or send e-mail?
We do more than advertise goods and services on eClemo.com. The site is a meeting point for transparent and legitimate transactions and for people. There is opportunity for dating for millions of Nigerian men and ladies. There is a space for congratulatory messages to be sent or place online for somebody special. There is a chat room and lots more for the visitor.
Are there any safeguards against abuse by fraudsters?
That is a very good point. Security is very important in Nigeria. This website is promoted to avoid this kind of dubious people. If you are buying a car as a buyer you will not transfer money to anybody in Nigeria or somebody you are not seeing. We are not promoting exchange of goods/services and money through a payment system within eClemo. We are actually promoting a meeting point between you the potential buyer and seller. So, if somebody places an advert on the website and says he has a car, we strongly advise you to go and check the car before you make any financial commitment. You must take steps to authenticate that the transaction you are about to enter is genuine. Ours is to create that necessary meeting point for the buyer and seller.
Is it just a platform to save buyer and seller the leg walk?
Yes, that’s right. We are linking people together to make things easier. If you are looking for a product online, you will know where you are going to pick it so you know where you are buying. We are helping to maximize the potentials of the seller and buyer to get goods and services with ease and at the best price possible.
Are you looking at opening similar windows outside Nigeria so that other countries in West Africa can also tap into these opportunities?
We are kicking off in Ghana as we have finalized arrangements to run eClemo in Ghana. We are starting a campaign already and the Ghanaians in Europe are very cooperative. There is much enthusiasms and the plan is to have a website that would serve the interest of the buyers and sellers in Ghana as we envisaged that of Nigeria would serve Nigerians, in the sense that all of these websites are already in existence in the embassies. If we have it right in these two places then we can spread it to other countries.
