Tech in Africa
Afrikrea an Ivorian startup has opened an e-commerce marketplace for clothing, accessories, arts, and crafts of African inspiration. The ANKA marketplace is a one-of-a-kind e-commerce service aggregator tailored for African micro-retailers.
Afrikrea serves over 7,000 sellers across 47 different African countries with buyers from 170 countries. The company’s data records over 500,000 monthly visits with a good share of customers from North America and Europe. Thus far, over $15 million worth of transactions have taken place on the platform.
Afrikrea gives African merchants a platform to showcase their products globally, including through social media and personal websites. A 2019 partnership with DHL, has since seen the company export over the 10-tons worth of cargo from the continent, making it the largest e-commerce exporter from Africa.
Moulaye Taboure, the co-founder and CEO revealed that they began testing an all-in-one platform last year to prevent sellers from losing time, energy, and money while switching between different channels. Speaking during the launch, he described Afrikrea as “the bridge” linking Africa to the world while “empowering thousands of micro-retailers and their clients.”
ANKA, allows users to sell their products across Africa or ship them anywhere across the world while receiving payment through local and international payment methods.
ANKA’s launch coincided with the company’s 5th anniversary of operations. Sellers can carry out their sales through multiple channels from an omnichannel dashboard that manages a single inventory, order schedule, and message management. There are also provisions for international shipping. Payments are centralized and secured through an online wallet where they able to receive payouts according to the merchant preferences.
