{"id":122,"date":"2013-11-24T09:57:55","date_gmt":"2013-11-24T01:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/?p=122"},"modified":"2013-11-24T09:57:55","modified_gmt":"2013-11-24T01:57:55","slug":"east-african-e-commerce-key-findings-ihub-research-team-nairobi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/east-african-e-commerce-key-findings-ihub-research-team-nairobi\/","title":{"rendered":"East African E-commerce: key findings from iHub Research team in Nairobi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The #<a href=\"http:\/\/www.afrikoin.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Afrikoin<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0conference is organized and hosted by iHub, Kenya&rsquo;s famous and main innovation platform for web technologies. Their research arm,\u00a0<a href=\"www.ihub.co.ke\/research\u200e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>iHub Research<\/strong><\/a>, gave us a few insights on\u00a0<strong>a research they have been running in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) on e-commerce<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/afrikoinlogo-martin-pasquier-3.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-201\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/afrikoinlogo-martin-pasquier-3.jpg\" alt=\"Martin pasquier innovation is everywhere Nairobi Kenya afrikoin logo\" width=\"399\" height=\"234\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The first e-commerce ventures in East Africa used to focus on\u00a0<strong>affluent costumers and the diaspora<\/strong>, with payment by credit cards, mostly in the travel and gifting industry, with startups such as TravelStart or MamaMikes, but\u00a0<strong>the landscape is changing fast with mobile money and mpesa<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>East African E-commerce research findings<\/h2>\n<p>The\u00a0<strong>purpose<\/strong>\u00a0of the study was to find out:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Who<\/strong>\u00a0are the consumers using e-commerce in East Africa?<\/li>\n<li>What are the\u00a0<strong>products<\/strong>\u00a0bought by these customers?<\/li>\n<li>What are the\u00a0<strong>businesses<\/strong>\u00a0present in the e-commerce field?<\/li>\n<li>What are the\u00a0<strong>channels<\/strong>\u00a0where products can be found?<\/li>\n<li>How is\u00a0<strong>payment<\/strong>\u00a0done?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The survey was run for one month on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/martinpasquier.com\/2013\/11\/21\/how-to-do-market-research-with-mobile-only-customers-a-case-study-with-binu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Binu<\/a>, a platform that facilitates opinion research on mobile. 538 panelists answered the set of questions designed by iHub researchers Leonida Mutuku and Christine Mahihu.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>40% of the respondants of the research proved to be e-commerce consumers<\/strong>, with slights differences between the three countries of East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda)<\/li>\n<li>The most popular <strong>product<\/strong>\u00a0with East Africans is&#8230;\u00a0<strong>airtime<\/strong>, which is understandable. Airtime is itself<strong>\u00a0mobile money used to transfer value through mobile phones<\/strong>\u00a0(you can pay bills with airtime, for instance).\u00a0<strong>Mobile phones<\/strong>\u00a0and gadgetry come second as a &lsquo;true&rsquo; product.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/iHub-Researcj-kenya-nairobi-trends-of-ecommerce-in-east-africa-tanzania-uganda-martin-pasquier-world-tour-of-innovation-products-bought-by-african-online-2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-223\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/iHub-Researcj-kenya-nairobi-trends-of-ecommerce-in-east-africa-tanzania-uganda-martin-pasquier-world-tour-of-innovation-products-bought-by-african-online-2.jpg\" alt=\"Martin pasquier innovation is everywhere Nairobi Kenya afrikoin iHub research trends of ecommerce in east africa tanzania uganda world tour products bought by african online\" width=\"566\" height=\"440\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>People find these offers in\u00a0<strong>web applications<\/strong>\u00a0for the most part, then\u00a0<strong>social media\u00a0<\/strong>strategies redirect people onto apps.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/iHub-Researcj-kenya-nairobi-trends-of-ecommerce-in-east-africa-tanzania-uganda-martin-pasquier-world-tour-of-innovation-products-bought-by-african-online-where-do-african-buy-online-3.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-222\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/iHub-Researcj-kenya-nairobi-trends-of-ecommerce-in-east-africa-tanzania-uganda-martin-pasquier-world-tour-of-innovation-products-bought-by-african-online-where-do-african-buy-online-3.jpg\" alt=\"Martin pasquier innovation is everywhere Nairobi Kenya afrikoin iHub research trends of ecommerce in east africa tanzania uganda world tour online where do African buy\" width=\"678\" height=\"461\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Payment in e-commerce in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda is mostly in mobile money,<\/strong>\u00a0such as M-Pesa, rather than\u00a0<strong>credit cards<\/strong>\u00a0(which have only 10% penetration in Kenya, for instance). Credit card payment remains popular for airlines.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Future e-commerce trends and challenges in East Africa<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Buy online \/ Pay offline<\/strong>, for people who need to see the product first before spending their money (we find the same trend of \u00ab\u00a0cash on delivery\u00a0\u00bb in South-East Asia)<\/li>\n<li>Growth of e-commerce as\u00a0<strong>utility providers<\/strong>\u00a0(electricity, telcos) and\u00a0<strong>government services<\/strong>\u00a0(taxes, fines, benefits) are entering the mobile money space<\/li>\n<li><strong>Expansion of mobile money<\/strong>\u00a0as a way to pay for goods and services.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some challenges still need to be addressed to gain more customers for e-commerce in East Africa:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Solving the payment barrier<\/strong>:\u00a0<strong>fees<\/strong>\u00a0can still be pretty high, and solutions are not widespread enough<\/li>\n<li>Increasing\u00a0<strong>trust<\/strong>: a first purchase made online with poor delivery will discourage consumers<\/li>\n<li><strong>Security challenges<\/strong>: businesses willing to pay and receive money for goods need to know they work in a secure environment (but, as remittances show in another panel, compliance has a cost)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_205\" style=\"width: 804px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/ecommerce-landscape-in-Kenya-and-East-Africa-Afrikoin-conference-nairobi-ihub-research-martin-pasquier-rocket-internet-one-africa-media-naspers-ringier-3.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-205\" class=\"size-full wp-image-205\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/ecommerce-landscape-in-Kenya-and-East-Africa-Afrikoin-conference-nairobi-ihub-research-martin-pasquier-rocket-internet-one-africa-media-naspers-ringier-3.jpg\" alt=\"Martin pasquier innovation is everywhere afrikoin ecommerce landscape in Kenya and East Africa Afrikoin conference nairobi ihub research rocket internet one africa media naspers ringier\" width=\"794\" height=\"570\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-205\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The e-commerce landscape in Africa<\/p><\/div>\n<p>As a conclusion, a joke from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Mbwana\u200e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mbwana Alliy<\/a>, founder of the Savannah Fund:\u00a0<em>\u00ab\u00a0In Africa, there&rsquo;s no place for e-commerce. People have more basic needs, like water, food. Oh, wait, NOT, here&rsquo;s the true slide\u00a0\u00bb.<\/em>\u00a0You have here a\u00a0<strong>pretty good overview of the e-commerce landscape in Africa<\/strong>, curated by one of the top VCs in the place.<\/p>\n<p>Martin Pasquier<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The #Afrikoin\u00a0conference is organized and hosted by iHub, Kenya&rsquo;s famous and main innovation platform for web technologies. Their research arm,\u00a0iHub Research, gave us a few insights on\u00a0a research they have been running in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) on e-commerce. &nbsp; The first e-commerce ventures in East Africa used to focus on\u00a0affluent costumers and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[53,55,49,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic","category-continents","category-innovators-category","category-markets-category"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}