Ecommerce in Africa - still finding its way
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2019
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Will Jumia and other online retailers overcome a lack of infrastructure, wealth and consumer trust to conquer the African market?
Jumia is widely seen by investors as Africa's answer to Amazon and Alibaba. It launched its shares onto the New York Stock Exchange in April. But despite a billion-dollar valuation and rapid sales growth, the company is not yet turning a profit.
Ed Butler speaks to Kinda Chebib at Euromonitor Digital, as well as Aanu Adeoye, managing editor at Nigeria's leading online technology magazine TechCabal.com, to understand the challenges facing Jumia and other ecommerce platforms, not least the problem that many customers do not trust its delivery people or payments systems.
Jumia's Ugandan CEO, Ron Kawamara, tells us why he is confident that these problems can be overcome. Meanwhile Daniel Yu, founder of the rival business-to-business platform Sokowatch, explains why he draws inspiration from the success of similar firms in China, India and other developing countries.
(Picture: A Jumia delivery man looks at his phone as he sits on a transporter in Abidjan, Nigeria; Credit: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Ed Butler and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. Today, Africa's e-commerce |
| 0:07.7 | revolution, the future of retail, some reckon, but Nigerian consumers don't seem to have got |
| 0:14.0 | the memo. Service delivery is still poor and that has to do with logistics and how honest the delivery person is. You can trust them. |
| 0:23.1 | There is a chance that you might be liberal of the scam if your delivery service isn't quick |
| 0:27.4 | enough. Yes, why is it taking modern online retail so long to penetrate Africa? The continent's |
| 0:34.0 | leading digital marketplace still reckons that future is bright. |
| 0:38.3 | We have a lot of mental barriers that we're dealing with. But the great news for us is that |
| 0:42.8 | we have built great awareness and our focus now is to drive engagement and adoption to break down |
| 0:47.9 | these barriers and unlock more users. Looking for Africa's e-consumer business daily from the BBC. |
| 0:56.7 | It is Africa's biggest online marketplace. |
| 1:00.0 | It's meant to be the continent's answer to Amazon and Alibaba. |
| 1:04.1 | Wall Street's betting big, but in this Nigerian commercial, you might detect a note of pleading. |
| 1:09.9 | I need a great deal. The best price I can get. That's why I shop on. Nigerian commercial, you might detect a note of pleading. |
| 1:31.9 | Jumia's battle to command the African market in so-called e-commerce is our theme on the program today. |
| 1:37.9 | It's one that reflects the wider fight to get Africa online to create a digital economy for the continent. |
| 1:40.0 | All the signs should be good. |
| 1:44.0 | 400 million connected consumers across sub-Saharan Africa already, a rapidly growing middle class |
| 1:46.1 | with billions to spend, and only a fraction of them spending it via the internet so far. |
| 1:51.9 | Jumia is now the market leader, operating in 14 countries, providing an open online market |
| 1:57.3 | where all kinds of local vendors can be accessed in one place. |
| 2:02.4 | Kinda Chabib is a consultant at the research firm Euro Monitor Digital. |
| 2:06.7 | Ecommerce is moving beyond the Western world. |
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