Afri-Shopping 2017

African entrepreneurs are determined to take shopping online, with 264 e-commerce startups now operating continent-wide despite the myriad challenges they face and poor prospects regarding the road to profitability.

The offers data pertaining to the 264 e-commerce startups operating across 23 African markets, as collected and analysed by Disrupt Africa between 2015 and 2017.

The report finds a substantial discrepancy between entrepreneur eagerness to launch e-commerce ventures, and the slow path to profitability for companies active in this space.  

While the number of startup launches are accelerating each year, the startup survey conducted for this report revealed less than 30 per cent of Africa’s e-commerce ventures are profitable to date.  

The report looks in depth at regional hotspots; and divides e-commerce into 12 sub-categories examined separately.

The publication also includes:

- Consideration of the pan-African spread and growth of e-commerce ventures;

- Discussion of startup activity in 12 sub-sectors of the industry;

- Data on e-commerce startup launches by year;

- Tracking of funding in the e-commerce space;

- Analysis of profitability of e-commerce ventures;

- Survey data on challenges faced by e-commerce startups.