E-commerce platforms in Africa are stumbling and have struggled to get a footing since they were launched.
Their performance in the market has been shrouded with a lot of challenges, ranging from poor infrastructure to cultural reasons that have slowed the uptake of online shopping.
Amid these challenges, retailers have continued to innovate and adapt, giving consumers new experiences. Small retailers have taken advantage of online platforms, outplaying big players backed with billions of investor funding.
Retailers in Africa are increasingly relying on technology and consumer behavior to reach their customers. They are using online platforms to change how they sell their products and services; and receive real-time feedback from customers.
These are 5 trends that retailers in Africa need to watch in 2024.
Omnichannel Sales
Small and big retailers alike are trying to strengthen the omnichannel approach, offering customers seamless shopping experiences, be it online or offline.
Big retailers including leading supermarkets are pumping millions into creating e-commerce websites and mobile applications that can allow customers to order for products and be delivered at a place of their convenience.
Businesses are trying to maintain as many communications and sales channels as possible, registering a presence in multiple social media platforms.
For small retailers who have opted for online stores, some have been forced to establish pickup spots for their customers to allow for seamless shopping.
Brick and mortar
The uptake of online shopping during the pandemic period made big tech firms bet on the death of physical shops. But post-pandemic reality has hit many businesses that they still need physical spaces, albeit with better experiences.
Shops with self-checkout features and virtual reality (VR) experiences have started to emerge, especially in Nairobi and Cape Town as customers demand for better shopping experiences.
Personalization
What has been going around is that Gen-Zs’ are entitled and complicated. Whether it’s true is a matter of debate. But the truth is, that consumers are looking for more personalized experiences and products.
Product recommendations online and offline should be highly personalized to resonate with ever-demanding customers, especially the younger generation.
Upgraded Logistics
Probably why most e-commerce companies in Africa have been unable to register success has been the failure to integrate enhanced delivery and return services.
If not delayed delivery, then you are likely to receive damaged products with no proper return channel. This has in many cases forced customers to go back to in-store shopping for the fear of spending money on faulty products.
Small e-commerce services in Nairobi, for example, have been able to have faster delivery and easy return services, edging out big e-commerce companies.
Payment methods
A growing distrust of most online shopping platforms in Africa has seen businesses with instant payment before delivery lose customers.
Instead, there is a growing trend where people order and pay on delivery.
Most businesses in downtown Nairobi have multiple social media platforms where they get orders and deliver using dedicated riders. The clients then check out the quality of the products and pay mostly via mobile payment platforms before the riders surrender the products.
This trend was also in response to fraud cases where customers would pay for a product, only to learn later that it was a con game.
