Africa E-Commerce and Online Retail 2021
Last week three e-commerce and online retail companies announced new VC raises. Kenya’s Kibanda Top-up, Egypt’s zVendo, and Morocco’s Epicerie Verte each announcing successful raises. This takes the total number of raises secured by e-commerce companies to 60 over the past 12 months, totalling over $140 million USD.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, consumer habits have changed to accommodate restrictions in movement and gathering in large groups. The impact on the retail sector has meant many bricks and mortar shops have remained closed.
Statista, an online data repository, estimates that retail e-commerce website traffic worldwide recorded more than 21.9 billion monthly visits compared to 16.2 billion in June 2019. Research published by the team at Wamda estimates that the gross retail value of goods sold online increased by 52% between 2019 and 2020, reaching $22 billion USD, this is expected to grow by a further 36% in 2021 to 30 billion USD.
So, has momentum for online shopping continued, and how has this translated into VC investment? We took a closer look to find out.