E-Commerce is a sector of the future in Africa. But if the market is more or less virgin in places, it is above all necessary to take into account time to make your investments profitable. In the meantime, traditional trade still has a bright future ahead of it.
From a demographic point of view, Africa has a huge market. And it is up to who can capture more than 1.3 billion inhabitants whose Internet users are estimated at more than 473 million. But here it is: many obstacles remain in the face of this enormous potential which remains a dormant asset. Among other things, there are not only enormous logistical problems which are all disadvantageous constraints, but also different and complex business environments for projects which require long-term investment. All these factors are not competitive advantages compared to other regions of the world and make financial structures likely to support start-ups in this sector cautious.
Despite the large number of its Internet users, the African continent remains a small market in terms of actual subscribers to E-commerce. The first platforms that launched on the market had the bitter experience of this. Such were the cases of the Yaatoo and Afrimarket companies. The latter, which operated on the markets of Benin, Senegal, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon, ended up closing shop after a few years, for lack of investors to follow it in its long-term project.
We tend to believe that it is not because, even in the most remote hamlets of the continent, people have mobile phones, that the Internet sales market will prosper overnight. It would certainly be necessary to resolve henceforth to revise its plans and to wait until the mastery of the computer tool is accompanied by a purchasing power which concerns a broader layer of African societies. And as long as traditional trade has not yet emerged from the informal sector, there is reason to remain cautious. Because E-commerce will therefore have a hard time competing with it without taking the risk of investing big. Apart from products concerning the field of culture, we will have to wait for the rest as for the development of online sales in Africa. Especially in countries where even addressing is still a major challenge in the administration of territories.
By Jean Kebayo
