Imagine you’re finally the owner of your very first home. You’ve spent years saving money and trying to find the perfect offer, and here you are. Or you can be an experienced home owner, but whenever you give your house or apartment a critical look, it becomes clear that your beautiful home needs some renovation.
Whether you’re a first-time buyer trying to make your new home truly yours, or you’re just trying to spruce up your home a bit, you won’t do without certain goods and products like furniture, decor accessories, appliances, etc. But buying it all new from a store can really break your budget. This is why you need to go shopping on JiJi – there is no better way to improve your home without going broke!
First, let’s go over the basics
JiJi.ng is a huge online marketplace that lets you sell and buy items from real people all over Nigeria. The front page of JiJi has two ways for you to find the necessary products.
First, you can use the interactive search field on top of the page – as soon as you type in your request, the system will display the suggestions to make your browsing easier.
Second, you can use the menu in the centre of the page. Products and services are divided into categories, where you can browse all products or instantly locate the ones you need. In our case, you need the Home and Garden category.
How to find the necessary product
Let’s say you need a new bed. Again, you have two options. First, you can type in the word “bed” into the search field and press Enter. You’ll see a list of every ad that features the word “bed”. To make the search results more precise, look to your left and you’ll find various categories that fit your request. In this case the category you need is Furniture, which is located below the Home and Garden category.
Also you can go to JiJi.ng, click the Furniture link in the Home and Garden section, and then choose the necessary type of products from the list on top of the page. As soon as you select Beds, you’ll see a dedicated JiJi page for Beds, where you can once again refine your search by specifying what type of bed you need – bunk bed, royal bed, wooden bed, children bed, etc.
The smart way to shop
JiJi is so popular with both buyers and sellers that often you’ll find hundreds or even thousands of offers based on your search. Looking through every ad trying to decide whether it’s worth your attention is very time-consuming. Instead you can use a few shortcuts.
For example, you’ll notice that on top of the search results you’ll see ads with a green label that says “Boosted ad”. This label means that the seller is very determined to make the sale as quickly as possible, and there is a good chance that the price/quality combination in the Booster ads is generally higher.
In case you are shopping on a budget and want to find the most affordable offer out of hundreds of ads you see on a single page, you can sort the ads the way you like. Normally the newest ads are located on top of the page, and older ads go below. However, you can click on the word “Cheaper” and see the ads ranked from cheapest to most expensive – this is a really good way to make sure you don’t overpay for your new bed or other home goods.
A couple of money saving tips
- If you’re looking for more than one product – for example, you want to buy a new bed, a chair, a drawer, and a desk – try finding a seller that has all of the items you need on sale. By purchasing goods from one seller you’ll normally save money on delivery and will make sure all of your new goods are delivered at once and on time.
- If you find the sofa, bed or wardrobe of your dreams at a great price, but the upholstery on that furniture has a few flaws, you don’t need to waste thousands naira on a more expensive offer – instead you should consider reupholstering. This quick and inexpensive method can transform any furniture and make it look like new.
- Similarly, you shouldn’t be afraid of a few simple fixes. Often sellers will sell furniture, decor products, and other home goods for a fraction of the price just because there are a few scratches on the table or a bent metal part on the bed. If you’re good with instruments, or if you know someone who is, fixing these problems won’t take more than a couple of hours, and you’ll end up with super good looking yet super affordable furniture.
