Nabilah Safira
TechInAfrica – Using Link Commerce as a white-label fulfillment service from startup MallforAfrica.com, DHL’s Africa eShop operation allows for users of the app to purchase goods directly from the websites of any of the app’s global partners. The eShop business has been expanded to 13 additional markets. In April, it manages to convert over 200 US and UK sellers from Neiman Marcus to Carters, online to African consumers.
The latest market additions are Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Ethiopia, Guinea, Lesotho, Namibia, Niger, Sudan, Togo, and Zimbabwe.
The expansion makes it DHL’s second time after the previous addition of 9 markets in May. The e-commerce platform’s move is linear to the notable growth of the online retail scene, Jumia. It also offers local payment methods to users, as they can pay with the following options, either with local fintech like Nigeria’s Paga or Kenya’s M-Pesa.
“For some of these countries no one has really tapped into e-commerce the way we’re tapping into it, with an ability to buy online and also buy online directly from places like Macy’s or Amazon,” MallforAfrica’s CEO, Chris Folayan told TechCrunch on a call as he pointed the novelty of online sales in Africa eShop’s many emerging markets.
The presence of the eShop has also leveraged the existing delivery structure of the company, which is its DHL Express courier service. For example, using DHL’s app to shop online is possible as long as the person has a mobile phone and a bank account. DHL is ready to ship all the orders to the person’s house. DHL also gives incentives to welcome new members. The company’s latest strategy is ‘launching a buy 5 items from 100 retail partners to get a $20 flat shipping’, and this is also DHL’s way to show its dominant in Africa’s shipping an e-commerce industry.
DHL and MallforAfrica plan to have the eShop spread across the 54 African countries for the upcoming years.
Source: Techcrunch.com
