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E-commerce is emerging as a major force reshaping customer experience in Nigeria, as consumers increasingly reward digital platforms that offer convenience, speed and easier access to services.
The latest State of Customer Service in Nigeria Report showed that the e-commerce sector recorded the highest customer satisfaction score in 2025 at 75 per cent, representing a significant 15-percentage-point increase from the previous year.
The development comes against a mixed backdrop for Nigeria’s service economy, with the national Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI) benchmark rising to an all-time high of 71 per cent, even as nine of the 12 sectors assessed recorded declines in their individual scores.
The report, released by the Nigeria Customer Service Index (NCSI) Group and powered by the West Africa Association of Customer Service Professionals (WAACSP), suggests that technology-driven convenience is increasingly influencing how Nigerians assess the quality of services they receive.
E-commerce’s performance was followed by real estate at 72 per cent, after recording a 10-percentage-point increase, while telecommunications posted a modest one-point improvement.
The findings are significant as digital platforms increasingly become the first point of contact between consumers and businesses, from shopping and payments to financial services, communication and access to information.
The strong performance of e-commerce points to changing expectations among Nigerian consumers.
Beyond the product itself, customers are increasingly assessing how easily they can discover products, complete transactions, receive updates, resolve complaints and access support.
The report measured customer experiences across several dimensions, including trust, professionalism, competence, complaint resolution, ease of doing business, processes and procedures, staff engagement and customer-focused innovation.
Trust emerged as the number-one priority across every sector, with its importance ranging from 71 per cent in the power sector to 90 per cent in e-commerce. Slot topped the 2025 e-commerce subsector, followed by Jumia and Konga. The performance suggests that digital businesses that reduce friction in the customer journey may have an advantage as Nigerians become more accustomed to faster and more convenient services.
Despite the national score rising from 61 per cent in 2023 to 67 per cent in 2024 and 71 per cent in 2025, the broader picture remains uneven.
Nine of the 12 sectors recorded lower scores than in the previous reporting period.
Transportation suffered the sharpest decline, falling by 13 percentage points, while both the power and public sectors dropped by 10 percentage points.
The power sector recorded the lowest overall customer satisfaction score at 51 per cent, followed by the public sector at 53 per cent.
Negative sentiment was also highest in the public sector at 44 per cent and the power sector at 43 per cent.
The contrast is particularly striking because these are sectors that provide essential services to households and businesses, leaving many consumers with limited alternatives when service delivery fails.
The findings point to a broader shift in the economy. As consumers become accustomed to digital services that allow them to transact from their phones, track orders, receive instant notifications and access services without visiting physical locations, expectations are also rising for traditional service providers.
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This creates a challenge for organisations whose service models remain heavily dependent on manual processes, physical queues and slow complaint-resolution mechanisms.
The NCSI report therefore recommends that organisations prioritise trust-building, faster complaint resolution and consistent service delivery. It also calls for hybrid customer-service models that combine digital convenience with reliable traditional support.
The technology sector itself recorded mixed but important results. MTN retained the top position among GSM operators, followed by Airtel and Globacom, while FibreOne led the internet service provider category ahead of Starlink and Smile.
In financial technology, OPay emerged first, followed by Kuda and Paystack.
The continued strong performance of technology-enabled businesses reinforces the growing role of digital platforms in shaping consumer expectations across the economy.
However, the report’s findings also show that having a digital channel alone may not be enough.
Customers still place a premium on trust, competence and effective complaint resolution.
Data Shows Need For Wider Consumer Voices
The 2025 index was based on 21,387 responses covering more than 1,500 organisations across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
However, the report acknowledged that the concentration of responses in Lagos and Abuja should be considered when interpreting the findings.
Lagos accounted for 9,897 responses, representing 46.75 per cent of the total, while Abuja contributed 2,994 responses, or 14.14 per cent. Together, the two locations accounted for 60.89 per cent of all responses.
The report also identified uneven response volumes and unmet quotas in some sectors as factors that should be considered in future sampling.
The 2025 findings suggest that customer experience is increasingly becoming a technology story.
As digital platforms make transactions faster and more convenient, they are also changing what Nigerians expect from businesses and public institutions.
The challenge for traditional service providers is no longer simply to provide a service, but to provide it with the speed, transparency, convenience and responsiveness that consumers increasingly associate with digital experiences.
With e-commerce leading the 2025 customer satisfaction rankings while power, transportation and public services struggle, the message from consumers is becoming clearer: technology may not solve every service problem, but it is changing the standard by which Nigerians judge service delivery.
