The E-commerce gap: Stats explaining why Africa Isn’t shopping online

Back in 2013, McKinsey indicated that by 2025 Africa had the potential to make US$75bn in annual eCommerce sales. 11 years have passed and Statista noted that eCommerce was a US$28bn market in 2023 which begs the question - what’s going wrong? Why is the continent US$47bn dollars of the mark and why is eCommerce still largely an emerging industry in Africa? As is usually the case, we took a look at some stats to try and explain why it's so difficult for eCommerce to make headway on the continent…

“If 10 percent of retail spending in Africa’s largest economies were to move online, e-commerce activity could result in revenue of $75 billion.”

Lions go digital: The Internet’s transformative potential in Africa | McKinsey

10 years from McKinsey’s projection Africa eCommerce field now resembles a graveyard more than fertile ground. In March 2023, Kenyan eCommerce player Zumi shut down after failing to raise capital. In 2017 VenturesAfrica reported only 30% of eCommerce startups in Africa were profitable. 

In 2018, Nigerian eCommerce startup Konga was acquired by Zinox - for an undisclosed amount. What was clear though was that no one thought Konga’s initial investors had made money on that deal - if anything the sale was described by media as a fire sale - investors wanted out. One of the more alarming statistics that became public knowledge was that in 2016 Konga’s active customer base was less than 1% of Nigeria's population at the time - estimated to be around 184,000 customers.