Origin Africa Magazine 2nd Edition

Trade
The need for E-commerce
in African Fashion Retail
The World has gone digital… Fashion Retail has too.
By Ebele Udo
Retail is as important as
manufacturing the fabric and
making the apparel itself.
One of the major Problems faced
by African Fashion Entrepreneurs
is Scalability and profitability. Sadly,
the lack of proper knowledge and
understanding of ‘Fashion as a
Business’ has yet limited institutional
investors from putting their funds to
help the Fashion Entrepreneurs and
in turn grow the Fashion Sector in
Africa.
For many years, Brick and Mortar
retail spaces have limited fashion
growth in Africa. Most SMEs cannot
afford to own/rent more than a store
in a country or location and those
who have tried, ended up struggling
with reoccurring operational costs,
and still their target customers
remained unreached.
How people shopped
How people shop
25.8
The
percentage
of growth
of Africa’s
e-commerce
space
Ebele Udo
The question remains, who or what
is needed to scale up Fashion Retail
in Africa?
Recent research shows that
customers need to get their items fast
from the comfort of their homes and
place of work through their laptops,
mobile devices and computers.
The online Shopping perception is
gradually changing as customers
are getting comfortable with buying
their favorite fashion items without
the burden of physical cash or driving
several miles.
With the birth of some E-commerce
platforms in Africa such as African
Designers Mall, Jumia, Konga,
Fashpa etc, there has been a huge
influence in the Fashion retail Industry.
Fashion Entrepreneurs who have
embraced this new money making
train with less hassles can boast
of increased revenue, increased
customer base, online presence,
24hour sales, profit maximization
while reducing cost of operations and
reaching untapped locations
18 JUNE / JULY 2016