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DHL launches an e-commerce application called DHL Africa eShop for global retailers to sell products in African consumer markets.
The platform is online today and brings together more than 200 US and UK retailers – from Nieman Marcus to Carters – online to 11 African markets: South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Mauritius, Ghana, Senegal, Rwanda, Malawi, Botswana, Sierra Leone and Uganda.
DHL Africa eShop will work by using MallforAfrica.com's branded white start service, Link Commerce. Payment methods will include local fintech options, such as Paga in Nigeria and M-Pesa in Kenya.
The announcement comes as e-commerce in Africa has had its ups and downs: Jumia, a young online sales company, has announced its IPO, while several digital content retailers in Africa have recently gone bankrupt.
DHL Africa eShop takes advantage of the existing shipping giant's delivery structure on the continent, able to get the goods to the doorstep from near and far through its shipping, tracking and dispatching service. courier by DHL Express.
DHL's partner for the new application, MallforAfrica, has already worked with DHL and a number of leading retailers, including Macy's and Best Buy. Supported by Helios Investment Partners, MFA was founded in 2011 to address the issues facing global consumer goods companies as they enter Africa.
MallforAfrica's payment and delivery system serves as a digital broker and logistics manager for US retailers who connect online with the startup to sell their products to African consumers.
DHL has been a logistics partner of MallforAfrica since 2015 and in 2018, they partnered to launch MarketPlaceAfrica.com, an e-commerce site that allows selected African artisans to sell their goods in one of DHL's 220 delivery countries.
For DHL Africa eShop, MallforAfrica's Link Commerce service will facilitate local payments, procurement and delivery, Chris Folayan, CEO of MallforAfrica says TechCrunch.
"That's what our service does. It takes care of the entire ecosystem to enable global e-commerce to exist, no matter what country you are in, "he said.
In a statement, the CEO of DHL Express for Sub-Saharan Africa called the DHL Africa eShop app "functionality, speed and access to connect African consumers with interesting brands". The DHL Africa app is also meant to fill void, according to DHL, as many US and UK retailers do not ship to Africa.
E-commerce companies, particularly in Nigeria, have attracted the attention of venture capitalists seeking to tap Africa's growing consumer markets. McKinsey & Company predicts that consumer spending on the continent will reach $ 2.1 billion by 2025, with e-commerce in Africa accounting for up to 10% of retail sales.
As we have mentioned, the landscape of young e-commerce companies in Africa has had its ups and downs. A young pan-African e-commerce company Jumia recently filed its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, a first for any start-up company in Africa. MallforAfrica also continued to expand into new countries, now operating in 17 countries, with partners such as DHL.
On the other hand, the troubled acquisition of Konga.com, Nigerian e-commerce hope, backed by about $ 100 million of venture capital, has created losses for investors. And in late 2018, the Nigerian online sales platform, DealDey, was closed.
DHL Africa eShop has distinct advantages in terms of transaction cost (ie the cost of delivery) because it is connected to one of the leading logistics masters, DHL.
Another element of the partnership between DHL and MallforAfrica is the e-commerce management service offering market through MallforAfrica's Link Commerce white label service.
This could put the duo on an equal footing to compete (or work with) the big names of e-commerce entering Africa and add an extra layer of competition with Jumia, which offers its own distribution services in Africa.
As for the big names in the world, Alibaba talked about the expansion of Africa, but for the moment has not yet entered.
Amazon offers limited online sales on the continent, but more specifically, has started offering AWS services in Africa.
It's about watching how DHL's new Africa eShop business fits into the online sales landscape on the continent. This could certainly serve as a new player in the e-commerce phase 2.0 in Africa, now that the sector has faced failures, has produced an IPO and has attracted the attention of big names worldwide.
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