Concept

Traditional e-commerce is a one-player experience - an individual interacts with their computer (or phone) to buy a product. However, with social commerce, you’re not alone in your buying experience - you’re interacting with other people, either online or offline, in buying a product.

This is the first thing that sets social commerce apart - the buying experience is social as other people (your network, community, friends, etc) are involved. The second thing is the order fulfillment experience - the mechanics used by the company to get the order to the customer.

Deep Dive

There are two emerging models; Group Buying / Community-Led Model and Reselling Model.

We have had a good look at these two emerging models, and believe e-commerce can reach a higher level of growth and maturity with these models than by sticking with existing models. If you’re a founder and you’re building in this space, be sure to reach out to us.

Additional Thoughts

A big enabler for social commerce is Mobile Phones and Internet, and Africa leads mobile device web traffic generation, with 69% of its total web traffic coming from mobile internet users in 2021. With Africa now at the onset of a demographic shift and technological progress, the time is right, not just to make small improvements on the existing model, but to make a leapfrog.

To leapfrog to Social Commerce, which has been tested and proven in other emerging markets. The African continent leads mobile internet usage, 13% higher than the global average, and nearly 5% higher than the Asian region. eCommerce penetration is also set to reach 40% by 2025, and web traffic in Africa is forecasted to be almost exclusively mobile-based by 2040.

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