Despite fears that the new Coranavirus will devastate African countries, Africa at large has so far recorded the lowest rate of infections. This is as compared to continents like America and Europe were the virus has stricken them hard. This has led to businessmen coming up with various ways of selling and delivering their products. As such e-commerce has grown in across Africa and almost everything is sold online.
Home delivery has now grown to 90% in one of the companies which use Senegalese platform knowns as srapidos. It partners with bakeries pharmacies and supermarkets so that it can get orders for deliveries.
Reports about E-commerce in Africa
According to precise data regarding e-commerce for Africa, it says that it is very hard for it to come by. However, the officials that spoke to AFP said that the corona crisis is becoming a boon for the platforms for online deliveries.
Jumia which is one of the largest online shops in Africa seems to be benefiting a lot from this online driven bump in making sales. This company has been struggling with operating costs that are high hence raising some questions on its viability for the long term period.
Jumia in earning reports on Wednesday said that it had a surge in demand in early days of March because of coronavirus restrictions.
Francis Dufay a managing director in a firm in ivory coast said that they were experiencing “explosion of Order.” Adding that the current demand is higher by three times. This dynamic is only seen in some of the wealthy countries in Africa like in South Africa.
“There has been a huge surge in demand,” Lynton Peters, who is a co-founder of e-commerce firm called One Cart, told AFP.
He further added.
“Over the last couple of months we have seen a 500-per cent increase in our business, and we have expanded quite rapidly to deal with demand.”
Rate of online shoppers in Africa
However, compared to other parts of the words Africa still have a long way to go. According to a report in UN in 2017, 21 million people in Africa shopped online which translates to 2% of the total worldwide online shoppers. The report also showed that half of these shoppers from Africa were from South Africa Nigeria and Kenya.
E-commerce has however grown by 18% per year since the year 2014. This has been luring more investors hence an increase.
Challenges Facing E-commerce in Africa
Despite the efforts to make this eCommerce work, challenges like limited access of the internet. Lack of street names. And the suspicions that comes with online payments have been a big hindrance. Also, e-retailers like Amazon which is the largest online shop is barely in Africa.
Jumia, on the other hand, is trying to adapt business practices that will help it overcome hurdles. For example, like having Jfleet of delivery drivers.
According to the Jumia official, evening deliveries has collapsed due to night-time curfew in Ivory Coast. The Glovo officials reports the same and this has brought big blow to their business. The most affected business is restaurants. This is because everyone can get home early and prepare for their meals.
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