Unprecedented traffic crashes composite retail chain's site hours into launch

A few minutes after Yudala, the first composite retail chain in Nigeria, went live yesterday, the website experienced huge traffic and unprecedented hits from various parts of the country and even neighboring African countries including Ghana, Cameroon and The Gambia.

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Millions of shoppers eager to take advantage of the mega deals on offer, the mouth-watering discounts, and freebies on offer had besieged the e-commerce platform immediately it officially went live at 12 noon.

Massive buzz via various media platforms including radio, TV, newspapers and social media/blogs as the countdown wound down to the official launch of Yudala’s Online platform was generated.

This apparently attracted an overwhelming number of hits from interested shoppers and bargain hunters which ultimately led to the disruption encountered on the website. The bombardment of the site is also testament to the capabilities of Yudala’s digital marketing agency, Ringier Digital Marketing (RDM), sister company of Pulse.ng, demonstrating the power of an effective online campaign.

In the build-up to the launch, Yudala had promised daily sweet deals of up to 90% off on a number of products till the 5th of September, free phones for purchases above N20, 000 in addition to a social media campaign centered on the 2015 Yudala-branded Rolls Royce luxury vehicle spotted at the local wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport.

Speaking on the public's reaction to the launch, Yudala's Vice President Online, Nnamdi Ekeh said, "The reaction was indeed positive and overwhelming, to say the least. Recall that we had successfully launched the Offline Stores Division on July 25th with the simultaneous roll-out of four stores in Lagos, a figure that has been increased to ten with the addition of six more stores nationwide, with many more to follow this month.

In the aftermath of the successful launch of the Offline Division, we had embarked on a massive media campaign ahead of the launch of Yudala Online. This undoubtedly led to the out-pouring of goodwill from the majority of Nigerians who were eager to benefit from the many promotions on offer at the launch of the e-commerce platform."

Reacting to the immense amount of traffic the site generated at the launch, Ekeh said, "Well, I would put this down to a combination of factors. First, Yudala had already laid down a marker with the launch of the Offline Stores Division. We had given Nigerians a taste of what to expect as many shoppers who visited the Experience and Smart Stores enjoyed huge discounts of up to 75 percent on various products plus many freebies. We even gave out free phones for every purchase above N20,000. In view of the foregoing, we had a massive number waiting for the launch of Yudala Online in order to take advantage of the mega sweet deals we had lined up.

Second, Yudala Online had attracted a lot of pre-launch publicity. The newspapers, radio, TV, social media and other channels were awash with news of the launch. We also had a countdown page on the website which kept thousands of eager prospective shoppers abreast of the launch. It was no surprise that we encountered a huge traffic within minutes of the website going live."

Going forward, Ekeh says, "The plan is to continue to optimize the shopping experience in line with our mandate of setting the pace for the e-commerce business in the country and the continent at large. We intend to keep faith with the consumers through the delivery of world class products and services on our platform. We will continue to make this unstructured business space more coordinated. We will optimize both the offline and online chains independently and then integrate them seamlessly. In addition, Yudala is a movement which has the consumer as the centre-piece of its entire operations. It is in line with this that we have become the first e-commerce outfit to provide core after-sales support with our in-house team of Tech Gurus for every device purchased from us. What’s more, Yudala also provides All Risks Cover (except theft) through Sovereign Trust Insurance for every item purchased from us. Yudala is indeed the revolution that Nigerians have been waiting for."

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This is a positive sign for Yudala as it hopes to conquer the retail market with its unique model and represents a tremendous demonstration of Ringier Digital Marketing’s abilities in the digital marketing and brand management space.