How Listening to Customers Helped Chowdeck Build One of Nigeria’s Fastest-Growing Tech Startups
Digitnomics 
By Francisca Anuforo
When Femi Aluko, Co-founder and CEO of Chowdeck, entered Nigeria’s food delivery market, many people thought he had arrived too late.
Global players had already spent millions of dollars trying to dominate the sector. Several had exited, while others struggled to gain traction. Investors questioned whether another food delivery startup could survive.
Yet, instead of asking how to beat competitors, Aluko asked a different question:
What are customers still complaining about?
That question would shape the future of Chowdeck.
The problem wasn’t food. It was speed.
During a panel discussion at the UBA Business Series, Aluko recalled that while many believed Nigeria’s food delivery market was already crowded, he saw something different.
People were ordering online, but they were waiting far too long.
Some deliveries took three or four hours.
“I believed there had to be a better way,” he said.
Instead of trying to outspend competitors, Chowdeck became obsessed with reducing delivery time.
Every part of the business—from engineers to dispatch riders—focused on one goal: getting food to customers as quickly as possible.
That commitment helped the young company gain attention almost immediately.
Customers changed the product
One of Chowdeck’s biggest lessons came from analysing customer behaviour rather than simply listening to opinions.
Initially, the company assumed every customer wanted the fastest possible delivery.
The data revealed something different.
Many customers were willing to wait an extra 10 to 15 minutes if it meant paying less for delivery.
That insight forced the company to rethink its pricing model.
It also reinforced an important lesson.
Customers don’t always want what businesses assume they want.
Nigeria behaves differently
Another discovery surprised the team.
As they analysed purchasing patterns, they noticed customers’ buying habits changed throughout the month.
Immediately after payday, people ordered premium meals—turkey, chicken and food from expensive restaurants.
By the middle of the month, spending shifted.
Customers bought simpler meals.
Towards month-end, many abandoned restaurant meals altogether and focused on groceries and local market purchases.
Instead of ignoring the trend, Chowdeck redesigned its business around it.
The local market became the opportunity
The company first expanded into grocery delivery.
But even that presented another challenge.
Unlike countries such as South Africa, where supermarket chains dominate grocery shopping, Nigeria has relatively few supermarkets outside major cities.
Most households still depend on traditional neighbourhood markets.
“So where are people buying their food?” Aluko asked.
The answer was obvious.
Local markets.
That insight pushed Chowdeck into market deliveries, allowing customers to order tomatoes, vegetables, meat and other household essentials directly through the app.
The service quickly became one of the company’s fastest-growing offerings.
Building faster grocery deliveries
As demand increased, another bottleneck appeared.
Shopping inside crowded markets took too long.
Customers wanted groceries delivered quickly, but riders still had to spend time walking around markets purchasing items one by one.
Instead of accepting the delay, Chowdeck introduced dark stores—small fulfilment centres stocked with frequently ordered products and located close to residential communities.
Orders that previously required lengthy shopping trips could now be packed and dispatched almost immediately.
According to Aluko, the decision transformed the grocery business into Chowdeck’s fastest-growing product.
“We don’t launch products for the sake of launching them,” he explained. “We build products because our data shows customers actually need them.”
Sometimes customers don’t tell you the whole story
One of Aluko’s strongest messages was that businesses should pay as much attention to customer behaviour as they do to customer complaints.
He offered a simple example.
Customers regularly demanded faster deliveries.
But behavioural data showed many were perfectly comfortable waiting a little longer if delivery became cheaper.
“The data is the truth,” he said.
That philosophy has become central to Chowdeck’s product development.
Communication matters as much as technology
Technology alone, however, does not solve every customer problem.
Aluko admitted that the company initially believed refunds were enough whenever something went wrong.
They later realised customers often wanted something else.
They simply wanted to know what was happening.
That insight led Chowdeck to improve communication across its platform.
Customers can now track riders in real time, monitor every stage of delivery and receive regular updates whenever delays occur.
According to Aluko, over-communicating has significantly improved customer confidence.
“People become more frustrated when they don’t know what’s happening,” he said.
Innovation begins with observation
For Aluko, building technology has never been about creating more features.
It is about paying closer attention.
Whether the insight comes from delivery times, shopping habits, customer complaints or transaction data, every product begins with observation.
“If you’re not using your data deeply enough,” he said, “you’ll build shallow products.”
In Nigeria’s increasingly competitive technology ecosystem, that philosophy may explain why Chowdeck continues to grow—not by building what founders think customers want, but by carefully watching what customers actually do.
