Yücel Yelken, CEO at Ystats.com, is of the opinion that Africa must be looked at as a promising and fertile ground for ecommerce, mainly because the African middle class is growing and more oriented towards price quality and accessible purchases.
The report in question published by Ystats.com, clarifies that prime time regional merchants like South Africas online fashion retailer Zando and Nigerias online mass merchants Jumia and Konga, have already enrolled in the ecommerce business. As a matter of fact, B2C ecommerce sales were less than EUR 1 billion in 2012, but an annual growth of around 40% is forecasted for the next ten years. The major concerns regarding the ecommerce business are raised by poor logistics in rural areas, low banking penetration and limited consumer awareness.
Mobile payment is widespread in the region, the base of the ecommerce industry, and along with m-commerce, both have a high potential on the continent because the number of handsets is ever growing, even more than computers. Most of the population has no bank account and the most widespread internet access method is through a handset.
In what concerns numbers, over 10% of active internet users in Africa shopped via mobile in 2013. In matters of shopper penetration, the report hints, Nigeria, Egypt and Morocco are ahead of South Africa.
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