Nigeria has already surpassed South Africa in economy size and topped all other African nations by number of internet users and mobile phone owners, according to the `Africa B2C E-Commerce Market 2015` report issued by the market research company yStats. Local online merchants, Jumia and Konga, are among the country’s most popular websites. Jumia has already expanded beyond Nigeria to other markets in the region.
Still, South Africa is significantly ahead of all other countries on the continent by important infrastructure indicators as internet, smartphone and payment card penetration. An important development in South Africa is the declining share of online spending on foreign websites. Fear of hidden charges and the convenience of buying from local merchants are cited as major reasons for not buying cross-border.
Nevertheless, US-based global merchant Amazon ranks among the most visited ecommerce websites in the country, while the two largest South African online merchants, Kalahari.com and Takealot.com, decided to merge to join their forces against increasing local and international competition. Overall, South African B2C ecommerce market potential is still largely untapped, as online accounted for only slightly more than 1% of total retail sales in 2014.
Check out our Cross-border Ecommerce Research section here for more info on country-specific ecommerce facts and figures, preferred payment methods, risk and fraud, as well as ecommerce legislation and regulation for mature and emerging markets.
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