Why Leverage E-commerce Sites For Your Business?

E-commerce in Africa has been positioned for significant growth in the next few years and is already home to a number of local and international players. The sector has been gaining momentum in a number of countries. The African e-commerce industry is ripe for significant growth in the next few years and is already home to a number of local and international players. That’s why this is the best time to begin to leverage e-commerce sites for your business!

 

Photo credit: eMarketer

E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, internet marketing, and online transaction processing.

Simply put, e-commerce refers to commercial transactions conducted online. These business transactions are carried out as business-to-business, business-to-consumer, consumer-to-consumer or consumer-to-business.

There are various methods by which e-commerce is carried out, however, the most commonly practised classes of e-commerce are “Business to Consumer” (service to end user) and “Business to Business” (e-vendor)

With deepening internet penetration, 50% of the continent is expected to have access to the internet by 2025, online shopping could account for 10% of retail sales, or $75 billion. The foremost factors responsible for this growth are:

 

• A Young, Tech-Savvy Generation:

A large percentage of people between the ages of 18yrs and 35yrs in Africa make up roughly 66% of the population on the continent. A youthful advantage that has accelerated the continent’s growth in the global economy.

 

• The Increasing Mobile and Internet Penetration:

As evident in the diagram below, the increase in the use of mobile phones and ever increasing internet accessibility makes e-commerce website a pool big enough for every business to swim and grow if effectively implemented and managed.

 

Photo credit: Internet World Stats 

 

• Mobile Payment Solutions:

The development and introduction of indigenous mobile payment solutions, most notably “Paystack”, has contributed to the growth of the e-commerce market in the ever-growing economy of Nigeria and Africa at large.

 

• A Booming Financial Technological Sector:

The growing support of financial investment for the technological industry from local and international institutions has endeared the heart of the aspiring and competent youthful population to embrace e-commerce massively. There are already indigenous e-commerce giants competing with the world most global brands, which is a testament to the growth of e-commerce in Africa.

 

Advantages of Leveraging E-commerce Sites

In Nigeria, a business owner is presented with 60 million active users of the Internet, according to the Director and Lead Digital Advisory Team, Ernst & Young, West Africa, Mr Dapo Adewole.

He also said that Nigeria’s e-commerce spending was currently put at $12bn and was projected to grow to $75bn by 2025.

The advantages of leveraging on the availability of e-commerce sites for your business will not be fully understood without the full understanding of the some of the importance of an e-commerce to a business and the economy at large.

Photo credit: Statistica

 

The advantages that business owners have cannot be overstated. Its benefits have been the driving force behind the increasing index for e-commerce growth globally.

Most noteworthy among the benefits are:

• It is cost saving on operational and office management expenses
• It helps your business to establish an online presence equipped with a pronounced social media integration system
• It equips your customers with adequate information readily available in the catalogue
• It helps your business to serve niche markets from which prominence will be attributed
• The seamless accessibility to customer data helps to understand the interest of each client and how to help meet their needs
• It is easy to retarget or remarket to the customers acquired via online transactions based on their transactional history
• It helps to boost brand awareness, especially when your business takes advantage of all the well-established business to business e-commerce brands
• It helps your business to be known in the international market by leveraging the global nature of the social medium integration and the limitedness of search engines
• It strengthens your online conversions and sales, through convenience experience and time saving transactional procedure
• Most importantly, payments can be received through online banking, credit/debit cards, or online payment portal through your preferred integration system.

 

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If you’d love to know about how you can begin to leverage e-commerce websites for your business, follow here to inquire about our services at Big Field Digital.