This archive report was first published on 22 August 2021.
Published on August 22, 2021, a report by VISA revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic led to a 5% increase in new e-commerce users in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020 compared to the previous year.
The report attributed this growth to a preference for e-commerce, which filled the void left by the closure of face-to-face retail due to the pandemic.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has driven customers to e-commerce and digital payment usage," the report noted. "The economic shocks that followed COVID-19 have reduced spending power across the world, including SSA, but the closure of physical stores has provided a growth opportunity for digital payments and e-commerce itself."
According to the report, the Sub-Saharan Africa region showed strong potential, with a 42% year-on-year growth in e-commerce sales from 2019 to 2020.
However, the region lags behind the Middle East and North Africa region, which has the largest growth potential over the next five years.
Despite this, the growth of e-commerce in Sub-Saharan Africa is being driven by various factors, including cross-border transactions, which make up over half of all e-commerce transaction volumes in the region.
These cross-border transactions mirror the global trend of online business-to-consumer (B2C) online shopper cross-border transactions.
Interestingly, a portion of these cross-border volumes in Sub-Saharan Africa come from consumers accessing the rising domestic African e-commerce stars across local borders, such as Jumia (Nigeria), Kilimall (Kenya), and Takealot (South Africa).
