Heroshe is pioneering the move for Nigeria’s cross-border e-commerce service with over 40,000 customers
The late 2000s and early 2010s saw the birth of Africa’s e-commerce boom. With the continent’s rapid internet penetration and the launch of payment platforms, there were numerous opportunities for innovation in inter and intra-national logistics that would help complete the triangle.
Heroshe is one of the companies in Nigeria that achieves this goal. Heroshe is a cross-border e-commerce, logistics, and payments startup that solves the problem of access to global commerce outside of Nigeria for businesses and individuals seeking products that are not available locally. For Nigerians, this means a low-cost service that allows them to buy, ship, and deliver goods from the United States in a reasonable amount of time. The name Heroshe is derived from the Japanese word “Hiroshi,” which means “generous,” and it embodies the team’s vision.
Heroshe, on the other hand, did not start out as the thriving B2B2C platform that it is today. Chinyere Ukomadu founded the company in October 2012, after she had just begun assisting family and friends in shopping for and shipping goods from stores in the United States (where she was based) to Nigeria via third-party courier services. While services such as FedEx, UPS, and DHL existed, she quickly realized that many clients had issues with them: they were expensive—some charging over $100 for shipping items weighing less than 1 pound—and required customs duty when the packages arrived in Nigeria. She decided to create a solution that would not rely on these major carriers and would be suitable for small businesses and individuals who could not afford their exorbitant rates.
As word spread among family and friends, she resolved to solve the problem by formalizing the order structure. When this started to take off, they realized there was something interesting to pursue. At this point, they developed the hypothesis that “people will live anywhere and shop anywhere as long as the price is right, the quality is right, and their items arrive within a reasonable time.” They set out to prove this thesis by experimenting with various business models and pivoting as they went. They plotted the models on their business model canvas as they validated/invalidated each model.
They were aware that they were ahead of the market at the time, but they remained steadfast in pursuing their vision. Their first business model was created at a time when infrastructure issues such as digital payment and last-mile logistics remained unsolved. Fintechs like Flutterwave and logistics services like GIG are now tackling these issues. These solutions, however, did not exist in Heroshe’s early stages. They had to create workarounds to solve these problems and delight customers, which meant they had to experiment with options that didn’t always scale.
To communicate with prospective customers, Heroshe used tools like Blackberry Messenger, and to ship to Nigeria, she used third-party courier services. They created a landing page on SquareSpace, created orders on Formstack, sent invoices using Freshbooks, and received payment via direct deposit into their Nigerian bank accounts to streamline orders. When the goods arrived in Lagos, the last-mile deliveries would be handled by a company representative who would load all of the items into a taxi, call customers to confirm their orders, and drive around Lagos delivering to customers.
After speaking with customers and compiling a list of in-demand items, the company tested a payment-on-delivery business model in 2015. They packed a forty-foot container and shipped it to Nigeria, where customers who had previously expressed interest would pay for their purchases. The model, on the other hand, proved to be a colossal failure when those who ordered failed to fulfill their orders. The team was tasked with liquidating a forty-foot container full of perishable goods in two weeks. The team, led by Chinyere Ukomadu, swung into action to find buyers as soon as possible to take the goods off their hands.
Heroshe received a new upgrade in 2016 with the implementation of Nigeria’s cashless policy. Customers who discovered they could shop and pay for goods using their own Mastercard or Visa debit cards turned to Heroshe for logistics. Initially, the team was skeptical of the business model, concerned that people would abuse the service by purchasing goods with stolen credit cards, so only trusted customers had access to this offering. The secret, however, quickly spread, and more customers, both old and new, clamoured for access to Heroshe’s Ship for Me feature, to which the company agreed.
Customers would use Ship for Me to purchase goods from online retailers such as eBay or Amazon, ship them to Heroshe’s address in Texas, and Heroshe would ship the goods to Nigeria.
Heroshe had 1,500 loyal customers between 2012 and 2019, processing over 200 packages weekly. The team determined that this model—shipping only—was easily scalable and went to work, putting an end to the Shop for Me offer. The next step was to create a platform where prospective customers could easily learn about Heroshe’s services and pricing, as well as track any orders they placed. The platform would also allow the team to manage their product offerings on a single platform.
Joseph Cobhams joined the company as CTO at this time, and he helped build the technology team. The team also launched a logistics platform to improve service delivery and power growth. This resulted from years of grit, failures, learnings, and pivots.
Heroshe.com was relaunched in 2019 to provide shipping services from the United States to Nigeria for businesses and individuals. Heroshe has been able to continue to learn and iterate towards a more suitable product for prospective customers thanks to the platform. The platform currently offers a Ship For Me feature that costs $5 per pound for shipping from the United States to Nigeria, plus an extra $10 for last-mile delivery in Lagos and to any state or region in Nigeria.
Customers who use Heroshe get their packages delivered within fourteen days of making a payment, and there is a 30-day pre-shipping storage option for those who can’t pay right away. Customers can shop at any store in the United States, including Walmart, Amazon, Nike, ASOS, and Zara, and have their orders delivered to Heroshe’s address.
Since its inception in 2019, the company has processed over 200,000 pounds in orders, grown to over 40,000 users, acquired customers organically, and scaled through bootstrapping. But, according to Osinachi, this is only the beginning. “Heroshe improves lives by providing access to global commerce.” This takes on various dimensions. We want people to be able to live and shop anywhere.”
Heroshe is expanding its product offerings to better serve business users who require access to more global suppliers as well as logistics to their customers. In the next two years, Heroshe intends to expand its offerings to other African countries, including intra-African transactions.
“Our goal is to make an impact,” Osinachi said. “We want to see more businesses establish and thrive on our platform, opening up opportunities for millions of people looking to start and scale their businesses.” We have invested time and resources in developing a robust logistics platform that serves tens of thousands of people.
We want to open this platform so that existing businesses and aspiring individuals can gain access to customers, products, and logistics capabilities for their e-commerce and social commerce businesses.”
To push this even further, the company is platforming its logistics solution, allowing more businesses to run their operations on its platform. Over 40% of Heroshe’s customer base consists of business users who use its platforms to shop and ship for their customers; the company is expanding its tools and services to help business owners establish and grow their businesses on its platform. Heroshe will help them by giving them access to customers, global inventory, cross-border payments, and powering their customers’ first and last mile logistics.
