How PAYPORTE Hit It Big With Big Brother Naija

Payporte has become a house hold name in the Nigerian e-commerce market beating Yudala, Jumia, Kaymu, Dealday, OLX,Jiji, Slot, Taafoo, Kara and a host of others. It will not take too much imagination before one is able to understand what has led to the success of this company within a relatively short period of time in a market that is as competitive as the online sale stores. It is the company’s awesome partnership with a reality show that keeps virtually every Nigerian youth on the edges of his chair; the Big Brother Naija.

The recent surge in e-commerce enterprises across Africa is revolutionising not just the retail market but also business in general. The growth potential of this niche, as demonstrated by several e-commerce firms showcases the enormous opportunities under tapped. As one of the continent’s leading IT market, Nigeria has seen a fast growth in the development of ecommerce businesses. The competition has been so stiff that bigger companies have been buying over others that were struggling in the market; an example is Yudala’s acquisition of Konga. According to Euro-monitor international, Nigerians are said to have spent N62 billion ($380 million) on online purchases as at 2011. During that evolutionary process, a few ecommerce services had stood out in the minds of Nigerians, Payporte has out shoned them as a result of its partnership with BBNaija since 2017.

During the course of the show, Payporte supplied housemates with many of their glamorous outfits. By serving as models to promote the attire, the housemates in turn made viewers aware that ordering the same outfits was just a click away, which ultimately gives Payporte its desired publicity and larger clientele.

THE SUPERB PARTNERSHIP

BBNaija and PayPorte can be likened to a Siamese twin. There’s hardly anywhere one appears without the other — be it on billboards, posters, social media handles and even on the show itself. This, of course, translates to more brand visibility for PayPorte and possibly more traffic to its website.

For instance, 1 million flashes of PayPorte everywhere you see BBNaija is enough to arouse your curiosity and make you ask the question: “What exactly is PayPorte all about”? Before the PayPorte-BBNaija partnership, there was a confusion that PayPorte was an online payment portal, but BBNaija has completely taken care of what it does now.

Also, it is quite easy for views to translate to more sales for PayPorte on the show. For all those too familiar with PayPorte’s backing, ordering goods and commodities  from the platform comes naturally. For average viewers, inquisition may drive them to research about the e-commerce platform and coincidentally discover an accessory a favourite housemate wears that day, and possibly push the order button.

An ad flash is another potential call-to-order. Something like, “Shop for Cee-C’s looks today. Only available on PayPorte” will make an ardent lover of Cee-C consider no other platform to order such wears.

Payporte’s new strategy is quite unique. Aside the frequent ads that go up during the Big Brother Naija show, Payporte also organises games for the housemates during weekdays, presenting free shopping vouchers as prizes for some games. Also, at the live eviction show every Sunday, host, Ebuka, never failed to keep mentioning thanks to “Payporte, your preferred online store”. No single episode of Big Brother Naija was aired without a mention of Payporte, which was quite strategic. Here is the lesson learnt, if you can afford it, sponsor a show that unifies Nigerians because they cannot just stop talking about it.

The CEO of PayPorte, Mr Eyo Bassey, once revealed that taking the reins as the major sponsor of BBNaija in 2017 skyrocketed orders on the platform. According to him, PayPorte was basically struggling to fulfill orders as the surge was high and the platform is only capable of processing as much as 5,000 orders on a daily basis. He further said that if BBNaija had gone on for 6 months, PayPorte might hit a breakpoint and be unable to deliver.

Going by Bassey’s revelation, if PayPorte was getting, at least, 5,000 daily orders before BBN partnership, it’s safe to assume that there’ll be an increase after its consistent bump into the living rooms of Nigerians in two years — this can be attributed to the fact that more people know about that brand. And supposing, PayPorte fulfils more than 70% of the orders — especially since it has terminated Pay on Delivery (PoD) and payments are now made before orders are fulfilled — it’s safe to assume that PayPorte is on its way to cashing in more this time round.

PayPorte should be able to live up to the influx of orders this time since last year’s spark might have given the brand an inkling into what’s coming and enough time to prepare for the incoming order-storm.

All these are possible indications that successful transactions on the website are definitely a huge source of revenue for PayPorte, all thanks to the show, and,  of course, their sponsorship.

PAYPORTE OFFERS OTHER BBNAIJA SPONSORS LICENSES

A reliable source said about the deal that PayPorte had licensing rights as headline sponsor. Hence, it could potentially charge co-sponsors like Legend Extra Stout, Minimie Noodles, Nokia and Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Indomie, Heritage bank, tens of millions of naira each, to key into the show. However, considering brands like Nokia and Pepsi that are big players in their space, there’s a chance that they are also big sponsors of the show.

Another way the whole thing may play out could be tiered sponsorship. In this sort of grading system, lower tier sponsors have to pay PayPorte while other bigger sponsors could stand alone. Either way, one can’t overlook this as a potential revenue source.

ANALYSIS

A lot went on during the BBNaija show. Everyone knew that viewers had to vote to retain or evict their favourite housemates. There were 3 ways to vote on the platform; online (mobile site, website) and offline (via SMS). The former is free while the latter costs ¦ 30 per SMS vote. We can take a cue from last year’s votes and a Twitter poll conducted by BBNaija this year to estimate what went to PayPorte in terms of revenue share.

Findings showed that the 2017 edition of BBNaija recorded N26 million votes in the final week while the 2018 final week had 30 million votes and 170 million cumulatively for the year. And going by this year’s poll, it’s safe to assume that about 20% of the votes came in via SMS.

Now, let’s do the maths. 20% of 30 million votes mean 6 million votes came in through SMS. Since an SMS costs N30, that’s a whopping 180 million ($500,000) in revenue in one week alone! Assuming PayPorte has a revenue-sharing agreement with telcos, MultiChoice and any other parties involved, even if in a worst case scenario, only 5% of the entire cash went to PayPorte (since telcos are known to take the larger share in such partnerships), that’s still N7.8 million. Not bad at all as free cash for an ecommerce platform in just one week.

And that’s just one part. There  were also text messages that constantly rolled through the screen while the show was on. They cost ¦ 50 per SMS. Again, let’s do some maths. If in a worst case scenario, only 1 million viewers sent such messages on a weekly basis, that’s another ¦ 50 million for the sharing parties.

For what it’s worth, BBNaija is more of a game of numbers and for PayPorte, it’s a seamless flow of revenue. Putting all of these together, there’s no way PayPorte wouldn’t make more than it put in for sponsorship. It wouldn’t come as a surprise if the Ecommerce platform decides to sponsor again in the coming years.

Whichever way the assumptions in the analysis goes, the fact remains that PayPorte has become a brand to be reconed with in the e-commerce market.Its rapid growth within Nigeria and abroad, and its ability to keep up with its targeted urban market in terms of fair product pricing, effective social responsibility campaigns, ease of use and commitment to fraud-free and secured online transactions make her exceptional in the industry. Named the Ecommerce Company Of The Year by the CBN Cashless CardExpo Africa in 2016, PayPorte has been hard working before its partnership with Big Brother Naija, however; BBN has definitely played a huge role in making it a top shot in the industry.

Additional details from techpoint.ng