Shoptreo Is Digitising Nigeria’s Informal Fashion Trade
In Nigeria’s chaotic open markets, trust and logistics remain the biggest barriers to scaling informal trade. Shoptreo, a retail-tech startup founded in 2021, is bridging that gap by digitizing how manufacturers and distributors connect, trade, and access finance.
Born out of Aba’s thriving fashion ecosystem, Shoptreo began as a small B2C business before pivoting to a B2B model. The reason was simple: scaling direct-to-consumer fashion sales was nearly impossible without fixing the deeper issues in distribution and logistics. “B2C is promising but hard to scale in Nigeria due to logistics challenges,” Uteh says. “Our B2B model allows us to focus on enabling manufacturers and distributors to work seamlessly.”
The idea for Shoptreo came from experience observing how unstructured and cash-driven Nigeria’s informal retail sector remained, especially in fashion. While e-commerce was transforming consumer buying habits, the local manufacturers and distributors driving much of Nigeria’s economic activity were largely left behind. Shoptreo set out to solve that, building a bridge between the two worlds through technology.
Even the company’s name captures this vision. “In trading, there are usually two parties: the buyer and the seller. For us, the third is Shoptreo itself, facilitating trust and transparency between them,” Uteh explains.
Today, Shoptreo operates through a mobile app available on Google Play, combining digital ordering, inventory financing, and AI-powered accounting in one platform. Its partnership with Tyms Africa makes it possible for merchants to record sales, track inventory, and generate invoices automatically, a simple but powerful tool for traders who’ve long relied on handwritten ledgers.
But beyond the tech, the real innovation lies in how Shoptreo solves one of the hardest problems in informal commerce: trust. Distributors often hesitate to prepay for goods, fearing scams or substandard deliveries, while manufacturers worry about getting paid. Shoptreo bridges that gap with a controlled payment process; manufacturers don’t get full payment until the order is verified, ensuring accountability for both sides.
The platform also offers retail financing, giving trusted distributors access to credit so they can buy more in bulk and grow faster. To qualify, a distributor must have traded consistently for a period and spent at least ₦500,000 through the platform. Remarkably, the company reports a 100% repayment success rate so far, and plans are underway to expand the credit window from ₦600,000 to ₦1 million and ₦3 million with new financial partners.
Currently, Shoptreo boasts more than 23,000 users, including 12,000 manufacturers (mostly based in Aba) and 8,000 distributors concentrated in Onitsha and Ibadan. The platform has processed over ₦15 billion in transactions and recorded 1.5 million successful deliveries, with more than 10,000 distributors benefitting from retail credit.
For logistics, Shoptreo partners with Red Star Logistics (FedEx) to deliver goods nationwide, but is also developing its own logistics arm to handle growing volumes. This reliability has become one of its biggest advantages in a country where logistics can make or break a business.
Although fashion remains its strongest vertical, Shoptreo is already exploring expansion into new product categories. The company is also tapping into the diaspora market through Shoptreo Canada, which allows users abroad to order made-in-Aba products directly through the app and have them shipped overseas.
At the heart of it all is Aba, Nigeria’s unofficial manufacturing capital. Shoptreo’s model empowers local producers to scale beyond their immediate environment, giving them a structured route to access more distributors and even international buyers. In doing so, it’s transforming local artisans into export-ready brands.
Shoptreo’s business model combines multiple revenue streams, including commission fees from manufacturers, service charges from distributors, delivery fees, and a 5% interest on retail credit. These have helped sustain its growth, with over ₦15 billion in transaction value recorded in 2024 alone.
The company has raised $170,000 out of a targeted $500,000 round, with the remaining funds expected to go into product development and expanding its retail financing capabilities. “Our goal is to empower more distributors with credit and grow Shoptreo into Nigeria’s most trusted B2B retail tech platform,” says Uteh.
Reflecting on his journey, Uche offers a grounded perspective on building in Africa’s informal economy: “You need to look before you leap. Never build without consulting your customers. The informal sector won’t work without guidance from those inside it.”
His advice to founders targeting the same space is simple but powerful: “Always start. The market is huge, but never decide without consulting key industry players before going all in.”
From Aba’s bustling workshops to Onitsha’s warehouses, Shoptreo is quietly reengineering how Nigeria’s informal trade operates, digitizing it without stripping away its human core. With every verified transaction, it’s proving that technology can bring structure to chaos, trust to trade, and opportunity to markets that have long operated on instinct alone.