Ethiopia is one of the smaller markets for eCommerce with a predicted revenue of US$63.

2
million by 2024. Revenue is expected to show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR
2024-2028) of 19.3%, resulting in a projected market volume of US$128.0 million by 2028.
With an expected increase of 23.2% in 2024, the Ethiopian eCommerce market contributed
to the worldwide growth rate of 10.4% in 2024. Like in Ethiopia, global eCommerce sales
are expected to increase over the next years. Seven markets are considered by ECDB
within the Ethiopian eCommerce market. Electronics is the largest market and accounts for
23.6% of the Ethiopian eCommerce revenue. It is followed by Hobby & Leisure with 22.4%,
Fashion with 18.7%, Furniture & Homeware with 11.7%, Care Products with 8.4%, DIY with
7.6%, and Grocery with the remaining 7.6%.

According to IWS’ statistics on Ethiopia, out of a population of 107.5 million, only

15.3% have access to the internet.
In 2017, the number of mobile subscriptions reached 53 million, up 11%
compared to the previous year (data by Ethio Telecom). The Ethiopian
telecommunication monopolist also revealed that out of the total subscribers,
25% of them use internet and data. However, the number of smartphone users is
still low, below 5%.

According to the Digital in 2018 report published by We Are Social, data on

Ethiopia shows that the number of internet users grew by 37% in one year, while
the number of active social media users also grew significantly (20%). The
majority of Ethiopians access the internet from a mobile device.

The most popular web search engines in Ethiopia are Google (92.9%), Yahoo
and Bing (3.2% and 3% respectively).
E-commerce market
E-commerce is still at the embryonic level and is rarely used. This is due to the
lack of IT infrastructures and even more to the absence of a legal framework.
Recently, the government of Ethiopia has been drafting a national law to regulate
e-commerce: when approved and implemented, such a tool is expected to boost
the online market. Furthermore, Ethiopian banks do not issue credit cards, and
only lately the local financial institutions have started using primary internet
transactions through mobile and card banking services.

The main platforms to shop online are Jumia (by far the leading online market
place in the country), Qefira.com, Sheger.net, ShebaShopping and Delala, all of
which are market places.

The most used social medias are Facebook (with 4.5 million users in December
2017 - IWS), YouTube, Pinterest and Twitter. Instagram’s user base is relatively
low, with 330.000 users. It needs to be noted that social media in Ethiopia have
been subject to blockage by the government (especially in relation to the Oromo
 protests at the end of 2017) and in some regions mobile data was totally
stopped. In 2016, social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Viber
were temporarily blocked as the government considered them as “a distraction
for students”.

The Ethiopian e-commerce

ecosystem
The Ethiopian shopping culture isn’t that different, it’s in most African
countries, but why does e-commerce seem to grow a lot slower
compared to the others?

1. The shopping cultures

97% of merchants use manual ways to manage sales and inventory,

while nearly 92% of customers visit at least 10 stores, bargaining prices
and exploring products before making a single purchase.
How can this ever change, imagine the social interaction, the
experience (no matter how tiresome it may be), the discount, and all
the sense of achievement? (all a Delusion by the way!), the bragging
and showing off to people (you sometimes even tell others the
original price, not the price you bought it by, don’t wanna seem like a
cheap person, understandable – since most of us can’t afford to
purchase the original product, again most of us!). we’re too deep in!
but there is more! I mean we barely scratched the surface here.

2. The digital culture

Research conducted in 2022 shows 58.54 Million mobile users and

29.83 Million Mobile Internet users. Now let’s get something straight:
don’t ever try to compare local businesses with those in the US and all.
and it’s not because the Western community is more educated and
technologically advanced, just take the population, Period! USA alone
– 331.9 Million, china – 1.412 billion, where else, India – 1.408 billion.
then let’s land back here and see ours, - 120.3 million, total
population, and 5.4 Million living in Addis Ababa, there are millions
out of the equation due to education level and opportunities available.
And since it’s a lot easier for them to import or export they can reach
an international market with much less effort than what we’ll have to
deal with to send a single item abroad… okay maybe I am
exaggerating things a bit here, but you get the idea.
I got a bit off track here, ohw the digital culture yes, so looking into
the internet and mobile users – the ideal customers, have quite an
attachment to social media platforms, I mean it’s a global issue, but
am not sure if the issue is trust, Laziness, I can’t say! and that bugs the
hell out of me! But they seem to be enjoying social media as they
become more and more all-in-one apps with chat, call, video call,
shop, post, play, event planning, and subscriptions – a single app. And
in the middle of all that e-commerce websites don’t get much far
before they slowly and inevitably decline, very common in the e-
commerce ecosystem here.
And just when I thought this was hopeless, KiKUU, a Chinese e-
commerce service provider, came, providing services to Africa, once
Ethiopia included, the good times. And that changed all the things I
thought I knew, it barely did any marketing yet sales blew up just
through a minor word of mouth and social media engagement. then
due to unclear reasons, they terminated their services here, since I
don't have full information of what happened rather not say.
Let me explain why it was working well here, all the products are from
china, pre-ordered, shipped, delivered, and on the hand of the
customer in 30 Days, but the price was ridiculously cheaper than any
local businesses providing those items, no local competition can beat
that! And that had me thinking of what criteria are there to change my
initial idea, and now I was more confused than a turtle on the center
stripe.

3. The 3 criteria

(i call it the Triteria ... silly naming I know ;) )

The first and most important is Price, hence why we always Bargen
before purchase, we are (often) willing to do whatever it takes to buy it
cheaper, period! We see that in the marketplace and e-commerce
ecosystem all the time, and yes including Berbera as well, vendors with
expensive products barely make sales! no matter how original it is,
how fresh off the box is exported and all, nada! This tells you two
things. Actually, the second is more of a question, but I will get back to
that in a bit. So, the first thing is the specific e-commerce platform is
not focusing on customers willing to purchase expensive products, like
shoes for 8 and 9,000 Birr. The second question, however, is, since as
e-commerce all customer base should be considered if scaling is in
mind, how far are they really willing to go, to buy it cheaper, those
who can’t afford to buy it that is? Well, KiKUU will answer that, with
customers waiting more than a month to have the item on hand since
it’s coming straight from china. But they don’t mind, they will wait. By
now you know where am going with this, if not let me say it all, what if
we can build a hybrid of those two, be more inclusive, and
international? And that is exactly what Berbera Market is working on.
Then what are the second Criteria? Its social acceptance, customers are
comfortable purchasing from a platform that is widely known and
used, in the Ethiopian context Qefira, Kukuu, and JiJi are one of the
common platforms customers go to, Since they’ve been in business for
a while too, specially Qefira with more than 6 years in the market. Even
though direct purchases are not available, to minimize operational
expenses and risks plus all the logistics nightmare! Yeah, that thing is a
beast! Still, millions of users visit that platform every month, some legit
buyers, some just to do a market price check, some cluelessly
exploring not even knowing what they want, we have them all, and
they are everywhere.
People will be more comfortable creating an account at Amazon or
eBay instead of a rising e-commerce company, and the dog chasing its
own tail starts here, you need vendors to get customers, and enough
customers to attract vendors.
The last criterion is convenience, we are not born with the patience to
wait while an item is packed and delivered, imported, or delayed,
another common issue we face in Berbera Market is customers would
cancel an order because they are not willing to wait for a next day
delivery, even considering urgent delivery services, then the First
criteria will come into play, they don’t wanna pay more for delivery, I
mean decide people!
4. ምን ተሻለ ታድያ?

The only best approach to change the Ethiopian e-commerce

ecosystem is to simply stop fighting it, and trust the process, at least
for startups as long as no international competition decides to disrupt
it with loads of investment. The ecosystem is already showing
promising progress, no matter how slow. As long as we do our very
best to change the experience and provide a guaranteed and honest
service to the community, we can change the mindset and ecosystem
one customer at a time.

This is my personal experience and perspective of how I've

come to understand e-commerce, I will be more than happy
if you can give me more perspectives of your own. Let's
work together to improve e-commerce in Ethiopia.
Cheers ;)

You have analyzed the sector very well. I think one of the bottlenecks for e-commerce platforms’
growth in Ethiopia is – the lack of customer trust. Customers are not sure if the prices and the
products are real or fake. It is even hard to purchase something in person from the market let alone
online. You always worry if you are paying too much if the product is durable, is a genuine brand, or
is something fake from China. I think an e-commerce start-up should be specific in its listed products
(For example only mobile phones ) at the beginning stage. Narrowing down the type of products
being sold on the platform - makes it easier to onboard only verified vendors, monitor and provide
good customer service, put out ratings and reviews for purchased products from customers, and so
on. Once customer trust is built in the e-commerce site and its service, the types of products can be
incrementally increased and the whole platform can be scaled up parallelly with the customers base
E-commerce in Ethiopia: a
luxury or a necessity [2022]
Molto Terfo

Molto Terfo

Find contents focusing on - Freelancing | Side Hustles | Books| Work opportunities | and
Free classes.
Published Feb 27, 2022

+ Follow

Working in Tech? well, you should think about creating an E-

commerce website or app in Ethiopia?
Technology in Ethiopia has evolved to become such an integral part of
people's lives. The advent and expansion of the internet, which
transformed computers and communications throughout the world
like never before, is a key element of this technological transformation.
This paved the way for e-commerce and online marketing.

1. What is E-commerce?

E-commerce is the activity of electronically buying or selling products

on online services or over the Internet. There are three main types of
e-commerce: business to business, business to consumer, and
consumer to consumer.
A platform where everyone and anyone can buy and sell has been
seen and done in multiple countries with different results. It’s not a
new thing in Ethiopia too. Although there are e-commerce shopping
platforms in Ethiopia, we can think of none that are like Amazon, eBay,
or the Chinese giant Alibaba.
Even though people in Ethiopia have the means of shopping online
and are familiar with the meaning of E-commerce: the world is using
E-commerce services to a larger extent. Using an E-com platform is a
method that deals with merchandising and other services by using
electronic media and the website of the seller, who then offers the
products and services to the customer from the portal launching a
digital basket system; lagging behind its use. For countries like
Ethiopia, E-commerce can offer a variety of options for the first time.
There are different functional versions of e-commerce, distinguishable
by the relationship of the transaction and the products or services
being sold. The most common examples are Retail, Wholesale,
Physical products, Digital products, Dropshipping, Subscription,
Services, and Crowdfunding.
There are many advantages of e-commerce. Some are:
1. Increasing reach

 E-commerce allows small businesses to reach a broad range

of consumers. It allows all sellers to be a part of a global
marketplace.

More jobs

 As these small e-commerce businesses grow, they employ

more people.

2. Lower operational costs

 With lower operational costs, small businesses have more

opportunities to spend their money on other aspects of the
business and grow.

3. Easier and more convenient shopping

  One of the major advantages of e-commerce is that it allows
customers to quickly find and get what they're looking to buy
without leaving their homes.

4. Allows comparison shopping

 Consumers also gain power through the experience of online

shopping. They can research and compare products and
companies easily.

Timing is everything in a developing country like Ethiopia. But more

than that the public needs it and is asking for it. With over 115 million
people and over 7 million in Addis Ababa, there isn't one satisfying
online shopping platform with an integrated delivery and payment
system.
And with the recent law that came out regarding E-com, new startups
and bigger companies from Ethiopia and abroad are trying to
penetrate the market.
The reason for the infancy of E-com in Ethiopia varies: Delivery
systems, Internet users, smartphone users, and payment systems are
some reasons that affect it.
But some things have started to change.
In recent years, Delivery systems have been viable and operable. There
are over 15 delivery companies operating in Addis Ababa to do local
delivery which states that the mapping system has been solved. This
mapping system has been linked to apple maps, Google maps, maps.
me, and many more.
In Ethiopia, in the year 2020, significant growth of internet users was
registered within 10 years. Statistics of the year 2000 show that there
used to be 10,000 internet users but in just 10 years, it reached
20,507,255 users showing significant growth of 204.97%.
But out of the whole population of Ethiopia, only 17.8% use the
internet. Out of the people who are using the internet.
Because people who own smartphones have exceedingly
skyrocketed, dozens of payment systems like YenePay, Hello Cash,
Amole, Tele Birr, E-Birr, and CBE Birr have been made available to the
masses over the past couple of years.
In the past couple of years, some popular e-com platforms have
emerged
by the same business model to connect businesses to consumers and
sellers to buyers. There
is EthioSuQ, Sheger, Qefira, Helloomart, Sheba
Shopping, Guzomart Kikuu
Ethiopia, Kemmis, Merkatoonline, Shola Mart, and many
more providing an online shopping platform with a selection of
leather products, coffee, personal care, apparel, jewelry, sporting
goods, shoes, hardware & tools, furniture, homemade seasonings.
2. Challenges faced by the E-commerce industry in Ethiopia
The major challenges that can be listed for the Ethiopia E-commerce
industry slow adoption are :
Poor telecommunication and ICT infrastructure facility
Payment Collection
Consumer Behavior
Logistics
Legal Framework

2.1. Poor telecommunication and ICT infrastructure facility

The foremost requirement to have a good E-commerce market is

proper internet access among customers and industries. According to
IWS' statistics, Ethiopia has 110 million out of which only 15.3% have
access to the internet. In the year 2017, the number of mobile
subscriptions reached 53 million, up 11% compared to the previous
year.
Without the infrastructure for internet use E-commerce cannot make a
significant business improvement as far as revenue and profit are
considered.

2.2. Payment Collection

The main requirement for payment collection is the availability of

different payment methods in a specific country. Only recently, the
local financial institutions have started using primary internet
transactions through mobile.
Through bank payment from e-commerce, one can give up to at least
4% of the income revenue.
For Ethiopia, E-commerce is mostly done business with the Cash on
Delivery (COD) option for the payments.

2.3. Consumer Behavior

The quality of E-services provided by the firms is critical in determining

the extent to which consumers will engage.
According to research from Visa, which took place in 2019, 72% of
shoppers have abandoned their shopping carts on retailer websites
and apps as they find the payment process tedious or concerned over
online security. lack of trust and security risks slowed online payments
in Ethiopia.

2.4. Logistics

Ethiopia is lagging in the framework for the logistic system. A study,

which describes that foreign logistics providers are not welcome in
Ethiopia. Even the private sector cannot participate in E-commerce
effectively because of incapacity to set up individual customs bonded
warehousing, inability to access land, inability to raise capital,
confusion over customs bonded regulations.
2.5. Legal Framework

The Electronic Transaction regulation that provides a legal framework

for Electronic Commerce(E-commerce) and other related aspects
including e-receipts is approved. The regulation is a supportive legal
instrument for the existing trade and service laws.
Nevertheless, there is a big question. Does the market exist? Why
weren't platforms like these made earlier?

3. So, Can e-commerce work in Ethiopia?

The simple answer is yes! E-commerce can work in Ethiopia. With all
the problems Ethiopia is facing in the E-commerce industry being
tackled slowly, more like baby steps, E-commerce will work in Ethiopia.
Other than the undeniable convenience of finding everything and
anything by saving time effort and money, and E-commerce platform
in Ethiopia can also solve some of these non-obvious problems.
1. Where do people go in Addis Ababa when they want to buy or sell
fairly priced products?
2. How do people who don’t have shops make money by selling what
they already have at home or brought from abroad to make pocket
money?
3. Where do people go to find furniture, clothing, electronics, and
materials in Addis Ababa?
Your ways of income could be
1. Referral fee,
2. Ads on your website from a traffic
3. Delivery fee.
4. Professional product Inspectors fee
1. Referral fee - is a type of commission paid to the coordinator in a
transaction. The website will be responsible for bringing a customer to
the business. This fee is paid in exchange for the business introduction
and the sale is made.
2. Ads on your website from traffic - Your website earns revenue
when visitors engage with your ads, commonly by generating
impressions, engagements, or clicks. An advertiser, for example, might
pay a publisher 20 cents per click. If their ad generates 500 clicks each
day, the publisher earns $10 a day or $300 a month.
3. Delivery fee- is the cost of transporting or delivering goods.
4. Professional product Inspectors fee- Professionals on standby who
check the legitimacy of the product customer ordered. If customers
want a specific product checked they can pay a fee to get a
professional product inspector to check their products.

4. Will people use it?

Again, Yes. People will use it. It is market viable. More than ever the
number of smartphone and technology users is high in Ethiopia. With
technology immersing in the day-to-day lives of society, people are
likely to use e-commerce.

E-commerce is not a luxury for Ethiopia. It’s a necessity. With a

growing population and better living standards, it's a no-brainer that
e-commerce is needed.

E-commerce in Ethiopia is unleashing; Studies show that lack of

infrastructure, lack of trust, security risk, and lack of legal framework
are the significant challenges of the Ethiopian E-commerce industry.
Information technology, lack of knowledge and skill of employees, lack
of IT infrastructure, customer awareness, and customer behavior is the
barrier to E-commerce in Ethiopia.

Implementation of a secured payment system ensures quick and

competent after-sales services have to be implemented and to
establish a successful E-commerce platform, long-range vision and
strategic planning approach are essential.

With its speedy growth, E-commerce is about to play a vital role in the
country’s development.

Why should you choose a

headless e-commerce
platform?
Powered by AI and the LinkedIn community

What is headless e-commerce?

Why go headless?

How does headless e-commerce work?

4

What are the challenges of headless e-commerce?

How to choose a headless e-commerce platform?

How to get started with headless e-commerce?

Here’s what else to consider

If you run an online store, you might have heard of headless e-

commerce platforms. But what are they and why should you consider
using one? In this article, we'll explain the benefits of headless e-
commerce and how it can help you create a better shopping
experience for your customers.
1What is headless e-commerce?
Headless e-commerce is a way of designing and developing your
online store that separates the front-end and the back-end. The front-
end is the part that your customers see and interact with, such as the
website, the mobile app, or the voice assistant. The back-end is the
part that handles the business logic, such as the inventory, the orders,
or the payments. By decoupling these two layers, you can use different
technologies and platforms for each one, without affecting the other.

Headless is another technology adjective that often gets

conflated with other concepts like microservices. Headless e-
commerce is a way of delivery e-commerce capabilities (e.g.
catalog browsing, shopping cart, promotions, etc.) without
 requiring the use of a particular front end shopping experience.
Headless allows the same functionality to be exposed through
APIs, and it's this flexibility that allows for the use other front
ends or even front end developers to create something entirely
bespoke. It also allows for the delivery of commerce experiences
through new, innovative touchpoints like within apps, on kiosks,
over voice commands, and more.
2Why go headless?
One of the main advantages of headless e-commerce is flexibility. You
can choose the best tools and frameworks for your front-end, without
being limited by your back-end. You can also update, customize, and
optimize your front-end faster and easier, without worrying about
breaking your back-end. This means you can create a more engaging
and personalized shopping experience for your customers, across
different channels and devices.

Three key benefits from going headless are: Supporting multiple

channels / applications which require homogeneous business
logic but with different interfaces, and some level of varying
capabilities - e.g. in-store vs online vs mobile app vs Customer
Services. Your team(s) working on the presentation layers can
work to their own cadence, both in terms of visual refreshes, but
also critically, in doing UI work required to leverage new
capabilities added to the underlying platform. Finally, it opens
the possibility of monetising other existing applications (e.g.
content driven sites) through integration into your e-commerce
platform. It's not a silver bullet, nor is it for all organisations, but
it's incredibly powerful.
 

Headless e-commerce is not for everyone. If there are no

business reasons, adopting headless unlikely to provide real
value, and may be counterproductive. It is a good fit only if a)
you have more than one front-end types (web, mobile, others)
and b) the front-end experience frequently changes (adding new
features, new integrations). Additionally, multi-sites (countries,
BUs) will benefit from headless as individual sites will have
different needs and ownership that headless can easily
accommodate unlike a monolithic e-com platform. So why go
headless? First it offers flexibility and speed to market in
launching new features and capabilities. Developers can be agile
as headless offers clear separation and control of release cycles.
3How does headless e-commerce work?
To make headless e-commerce work, you need to connect your front-
end and back-end through APIs. APIs are interfaces that allow
different systems to communicate and exchange data. For example,
when a customer adds a product to their cart, the front-end sends a
request to the back-end through an API, and the back-end responds
with the relevant information, such as the price, the availability, or the
shipping options. This way, you can keep your front-end and back-end
synchronized and consistent.

The front-end of an e-commerce site represents the shopper

experience, including everything that shows up on the storefront,
such as product details, graphics, and promotional content. The
back-end represents the business processes supporting the
shopper experience, e-commerce services such as products
search, promotions, pricing, inventory, cart and checkout, plus all
 of the underlying data (catalog, prices, contents). With headless
commerce, the front end (or the head) is decoupled from the
back end and APIs bridge the gap, delivering content like
products, promotions or customer reviews to any screen or
device

This depends on which backend you have. One major key

difference is how user and cart state is managed. If not done
correctly key functionalities, such as abandoned carts and cross
device cart management could be lost.
4What are the challenges of headless e-
commerce?
Headless e-commerce is not without its challenges. One of them is
complexity. You need to have the technical skills and resources to
manage and maintain multiple systems and platforms, as well as to
integrate and secure them through APIs. You also need to ensure that
your front-end and back-end are compatible and scalable, especially if
you want to add new features or functionalities. Another challenge is
cost. Depending on your needs and goals, headless e-commerce
might require more investment and time than a traditional e-
commerce platform.

Let’s use the car analogy here. IF you have such unique
requirements for your store that no one else has needed or built
for then go headless, or build your own car! We’ve all seen the
episode of the Simpsons where Homer designs his own car. The
reality is your needs are quite similar to 9/10 merchants, so go to
the car showroom and buy something that has been designed
tested and refinded over years. Or build it custom (headless).
 In headless e-commerce your checkout is open to bots, highly
problematic for popular hype brands as bots buy up entire stock
drops before real customers. It's advisable to use a Shopify
theme or develop your own bot detection capabilities. The idea
of headless architecture guaranteeing improved site
performance is a bit of a misconception. You’ll still rely on third-
party services that can compromise your site speed. Just because
your app is static on Netlify, doesn’t mean it’s fast. Going
headless can impact your Google search ranking. From an SEO
perspective, you need to know what you’re doing as designing
your own URL structures isn’t without SEO implications.
5How to choose a headless e-commerce
platform?
If you decide to go headless, you need to find a suitable headless e-
commerce platform for your back-end. Unlike a traditional e-
commerce platform, a headless e-commerce platform provides core
functionalities such as product catalog, inventory management, order
processing, payment processing, and customer service through APIs.
There are many headless e-commerce platforms available in the
market, each with its own features, pricing, and support. As such, when
choosing a headless e-commerce platform, you should consider
factors such as the quality and availability of the APIs; the security and
reliability of the platform; the scalability and performance of the
platform; compatibility and integration with your front-end and other
systems; customization and configuration options; and customer
service and technical support.

This is actually a misconception. There are few enterprise-level

commerce solutions that are headless (and those few have
 acquired their own "heads" - they're just separate). The better
question is: Do you want to replatform to a commerce solution
that provides fewer features so that you can select and add your
own specialty solutions around it (including the frontend, or
"head")? AND - if you don't want to replatform completely, do
you just want to ADD those additional pieces on top of your
feature-rich (HeadFUL?) solution? You don't have to choose a
headless vendor to implement separate components of the head.
Just note that legacy solutions make this harder to do, whereas
the actually "headless" ones are likely easier to integrate.

I agree with @Emily Pfeiffer on this one. Most platforms are

headless now, and when choosing a vendor, you should look at
other criteria: - B2C vs. B2B - set of functionality required for
your industry (grocery vs. fashion, complex machinery vs. selling
services, ...) - Composability and what parts of Ecommerce
platform you need vs. separate systems - Options to develop
your own head vs pre-existing integration with universal head as
vuestorefront
6How to get started with headless e-
commerce?
If you are ready to take the plunge into headless e-commerce, there
are several steps you can take to get started. Begin by defining your e-
commerce goals and strategy, followed by researching and comparing
different headless e-commerce platforms. Once you have selected the
best platform for your needs, choose the front-end technology and
platform that works best for you. Then, design and develop your front-
end interface and user experience before connecting the front-end
and back-end through APIs. After testing and launching your headless
e-commerce store, monitor and optimize its performance and
customer feedback. Headless e-commerce is a powerful way of
building and running an online store, allowing for a more unique and
tailored shopping experience. However, it comes with challenges and
costs that need to be taken into account before committing to this
approach. If you believe headless e-commerce is the right choice for
you, this article provides insights and guidance on how to get started.