Street trading is an age-long marketing strategy. Notwithstanding several laws, attendant risks and treatment of its operators as pariahs, the practice has continued to flourish,writes JANE CHIJIOKE.
IN 2007, he left his native home in Osun State, with the hope of getting employment in a cozy environment. But this was not be.
To survive, young Olaide Adeyemi thought of several ways.
A friend introduced him to street trading. With a loan of N4, 000 from his friend, he bought packets of a popular snacks meal and launched out.
He realised that he sold faster in the traffic.
To augment his sales, Adeyemi was introduced to selling a company’s product, which gave him the branded equipment.
“For the N100 ice-cream, my profit is N22. I get N40 gain from the plastic container ice-cream I sell for N150, although some of us sell it for N200. So, at the end of the day, I calculate the number of product I sold and deducted my own money before I deliver for the day sales to the company,” Adeyemi told this reporter. He added that daily, he made profits in the region of N5,000 -N6,000. But when the market is dull, it shrinks to as little as N1,000- N2,000.
Welcome to the business of street trading.
Street trading, whether on the highways or the streets, has survived for centuries. Now it is borne out of the need to eke out a living, giving the challenging times in the country. Such trading is common in developing countries with over population in urban areas.
According to data on urban growth, Lagos State, estimated to have over 24 million people, has the highest urban population growth in the country at the rate of 27.4 percent. As a result, many people resort to casual work or engage in informal entrepreneurship, such as street trading.
To some of its operators, street trading is viable. They access all street corners to ply their trade. The more streets they comb, the more sales they make.
Modus operandi
For those who trade on the highways, the modus operandi is one that is energy sapping and poses danger to operator’s life. For instance, traders are seen running after cars, displying their products before motorists to solicit patronage. They sell items, such as cooked food, snacks, beverages, bread, kitchen utensils, furniture, shoes, and clothes. To assist one another, they share information on areas that are traffic filled to make more sales and alert themselves on the state law enforcement agencies who haunt them.
Street trading, they argued, is a battle for survival.
As such, they are not deterred by the government policies to stop them. Some claim mobile trading generates quick profit as they get more than 60 percent of their customers through such a channel than selling in shops or an online interface. To face the day’s task, some take herbal or the orthodox medicine to keep them fit and retire later at night to either under bridges, paired apartment, their homes or their guardian homes whom they remit the proceed from the day’s sales to.
In the past, street hawking had little value as it was believed to be for those who could barely have one square meal a day. They traded their goods, moving from one house to another, street to street, announcing their presence. Some display their wares on the roadside.
‘Corporate’ sales
Some firms have also defined smart ways of getting their products to the market. They engage hawkers, who they give the products to sell. At the end of the day’s business, the hawker returns the product cost and is paid a commission on the volume sold.
As part of assistance to them, the traders are given the company’s branded paraphernalia, such as carts, tricycle, bicycle, and vans to aid their sales as well as some ‘comfort.
For instance, a street trader, Donald Obi, who sells a company’s range of home appliances in Ikotun area of Lagos State, explained that he was not paid by the company. “We were recruited by the marketing manager of the company. We get our profit from the number of goods we are able to sell in a day. For instance, the company pegs this bulb at N400; we sell at N450-N500. So, that is how we make our own gains,” he revealed.
Changing face of street trading
Because of the most proximate channel to reach the end consumers and the quick sales it generate, street trading has gained more attraction as even traders who own shops leverage the advantages it offers.
But with the entrance of new products into the market, which has heightened competition, most organisations have adopted mobile street selling as a strategy to gain more market.
Beyond their channels of distribution, some firms employ youths to hawk their goods. They are seen moving from street to street and on the highways persuading passersby and motorists to buy a particular product or introduce them to a new product or services. Occasionally, they organise product display at strategic areas along streets and entertain passersby to patronise them.
“The competition in the market is high. We can no longer fold our arms and assume customers would come to the bank to seek our services. We need to strategise every means possible to remain relevant in the market,” said a marketing staff member of a first generation financial institution, who was at Yaba introducing her bank’s services to passersby.
Yet, as street selling evolves, business firms and traders are devising innovative techniques to make their products appealing to consumers. They use mobile kiosk, mobile vans, mobile carts, street promos, uniforms, wheelbarrows, and the traditional head carriage, among others.
Experts see this trend as necessary to be at par with the changing consumer behaviour and taste, adding that innovation is key to business growth.
A marketing strategist, Dotun Babatunde said: “We are in a very dynamic era where an average consumer is very technologically wise. Nigeria is a first mobile market, where more people have mobile phones and desktops. As a consumer is critical to business, they need to appeal to the senses of their consumers. It is about creating new ways to reach out to their consumers.They need to understand what makes a consumer buy a product or the other. This will affect how a business is faring. With more products coming into the market, there is no point trying to stagnate yourself with whatever that has always worked for you. Otherwise you realise that you are losing in the business space.”
For Atinuke Shittu, it is about trying to appeal to the upper class, who for one reason or the other, place no value or feel uncomfortable patronising goods sold on the street. Also, such innovation like a branded mobile kiosk or van creates more awareness for the product.
She said street trading is beneficial to every party involved – the consumer, the trader and the business owner.
“For the seller, it is about surviving the harsh economy. It makes it easier for the buyers to get what they need at any point in time; for the company, it means their products are not just limited to the open market, or modern trade shops, which means more profits in return,” Shittu said.
Rat Race
However, a street trader’s life is akin to a rat race. Daily, he is faced with harassment from street urchins, popularly known as area boys, who extort money from them. For some roadside traders, including those who sell goods in car boots, they pay these areas boys for space. But this does not grant them immunity from government operatives, such as Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) and the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences (Taskforce).
In Mafoluku area of the state for instance, street or roadside traders must pay area boys before they are allowed to start business. Findings by this reporter showed that the cash is based on the size of space and volume of wears or products to be sold. This is called ground ‘rent,’ which can be as much as N10, 000.
Subsequent payment after this range from N100, which is made daily to the area boys.
“Here we pay N10, 000 or more for space depending on what we sell to the area boys around here and they charge us N100 daily afterwards,” said Moses, a sharwarma seller at the Mafoluku bus stop.
Nigerians react
To some Nigerians, the government should allow street trading stay. Rather than ban it, stakeholders advocated that it should rremain as operators add value to the sub sector.
They urged the government to create an enabling environment for citizens.
But the Lagos State Chairman of Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists, Mrs Gertrude Akhimen, said street selling does not conform with best practices in the business world.
“Their effort or contribution to the economy cannot be quantified in figures as there is no organised platform for them. It affects other businesses, which is one of the reasons big companies are keying into it, as it has made consumers to rather do their shopping on the streets than visit market places. I think the disadvantages outweigh the advantages,”Mrs Akhimeni said.
She called on government to provide affordable shops for traders to do business.
Government‘s position
Street trading has remained an issue that successive governments have continuously addressed owing to the fact that it aids robbery on highways, cause traffic congestion, litters the environment with waste and disrupts the aesthetic view of the environment.
TIn trying to address this, various enforcement agents have been inaugurated by successive governments.
In one of its raids on illegal traders, the Chairman, Lagos State Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences (Taskforce), Olayinka Egbeyemi (a Chief Sperintendent of Police), said government would not tolerate any disrespect of the law by traders who converts any available space to a trading spot. He also warned that illegal traders and hawkers should vacate the roads to reduce inconveniences to motorists and enhance the sustainability of the environment.
Efforts to get data on the number of illegal traders prosecuted so far proved abortive as a LAGESC source said there has been power outage for over a week as a result of ongoing Oshodi Interchange project. The source added that the power gnerating set of the agency has been faulty, adding that there was no way to access the data on the computers in the office.
The Public Relation Officer, Ministry of Environment, Kunle Adeshina, said while government has made tremendous effort in curtailing the issue, it has also embarked on advocacy to enlighten the traders on the dire consequences of street trading.
“Just like the past administration, it is not about catching them and throwing them into jail. Government also adds human face to its enforcement activities and that is why we try advocacy to enlighten them on the dangers. Even when they are arrested, sometimes, instead of giving them custodian sentences, they are asked to do community services such as sweeping the street or market just to serve as a means of deterrent,” Adeshina explained.
He agreed nonetheless that some companies are leveraging street trading to bolster their sales. This, he explained, is done under the guise of poverty alleviation initiative to give unemployed youths tricycle, bicycle, their products and other forms of trading facility.
“Some of these regulatory powers reside with the local government and I believe they have been talking to them to let them realise that they constitute a form of elevated street trading and the government will surely address this in a very short while,” he said.
He said taming the shrew of street trading is a continuous process, adding that the government is determined to reduce it to the barest minimum.
According to him, more shops will built for the traders at affordable rent. (The Nation)
