Ecommerce is about to take off on the African continent. With a turnover of 8 billion dollars in 2013, these next years promise to be much better: it is estimated that it could experience a surge to peak at 50 billion dollars by 2018 according to a study by Deloitte on the occasion of the 11th edition of Africa Telecom People, the international ICT fair which took place in Abidjan in October 2015.

Favorable factors

African consumption habits are changing. They become less defiant vis-à-vis new technologies and more eager for international brands and products.

The breakthrough of mobile is the main driver: with 350 million mobile phones on the continent by 2017, the mobile services market is booming. Almost 12% of consumers in French-speaking Africa have already made purchases via their mobile. 20% of Africans are now connected to the internet.

Innovative means of payment

Over 60% of African villages are connected to the telecom network, while bank branches only cover large urban centers, allowing only 12% of the population to have a bank account. This limited access to banking infrastructures has opened the way to telecoms: mobile has become the preferred means in Africa of carrying out transactions and money transfers for the 700 million mobile subscribers.

The leaders of the mobile payment sector are the French Orange Money acclaimed by 14 million Africans, MTN Mobile Money, leader in Ivory Coast, Afrimarket, specialized in the transfer of money cash to goods, allowing Africans to withdraw the money received in the form of real goods via a network of partner merchants. Uber is offering its own money transfer system, the m-pesa, adopted by 20 million Kenyans.

Infrastructure to develop

To cope with the ecommerce boom, the African continent must now acquire logistical infrastructures, such as road networks, street addressing, relay points. The African Development Bank estimates that 60% of the population lives more than two kilometers from a tarmac track, making these potential customers out of reach of delivery channels. A dilemma to which Jumia has for example responded with a fleet of motorcycle couriers and offers cash on delivery, a transaction method adopted in Morocco in 2/3 of sales.

The Internet will also have to enter African homes, notably thanks to the installation of fiber optics and the deployment of 3G. Without forgetting the financial investment in current and future ecommerce companies, the main obstacle to development of which is still the financial side.

Source: http://www.africatech.fr/2016/05/29/le-ecommerce-amorce-une-percee-sur-le-continent-africain/

About The Author

CEO AfrikaTech

Comme beaucoup de personnes j’ai connu l’Afrique à travers des stéréotypes : l’Afrique est pauvre, il y a la guerre, famine… Je suis devenu entrepreneur pour briser ces clichés et participer à la construction du continent. J’ai lancé plusieurs entreprises dont Kareea (Formation et développement web), Tutorys (Plate-forme de e-learning), AfrikanFunding (Plate-forme de crowdfunding). Après un échec sur ma startup Tutorys, à cause d’une mauvaise exécution Business, un manque de réseau, pas de mentor, je suis parti 6 mois en immersion dans l’écosystème Tech au Sénégal. J’ai rencontré de nombreux entrepreneurs passionnés, talentueux et déterminés. A mon retour sur Paris je décide de raconter leur histoire en créant le média AfrikaTech. L'objectif est de soutenir les entrepreneurs qui se battent quotidiennement en Afrique en leur offrant la visibilité, les connaissances, le réseautage et les capitaux nécessaires pour réussir. L'Afrique de demain se construit aujourd'hui ensemble. Rejoignez-nous ! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boubacardiallo

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