By Jessica Donati
DAKAR, July 14 (Reuters) – No bank card? No address? No problem. Shoppers in Africa increasingly are buying online from big brands such as Amazon or Walmart even though they have no physical presence on much of the continent.
Among those benefiting from the shift are local and foreign package-forwarding companies that use technology and increasing internet penetration in Africa to overcome hurdles, including a lack of formal street addresses and customers with no access to traditional banks.
One is Senegalese startup, Afrety, which provides a snapshot of how Africa’s shoppers can rely on intermediaries to buy from the United States, Europe and China and receive the package at their doorstep.
DELIVERING WITHOUT AN ADDRESS
Afrety’s service provides shoppers with delivery addresses at warehouses in France, the United States and China. Multiple purchases can be consolidated for each customer and repackaged for dispatch to West Africa. On arrival, customs duties are paid, benefiting local governments.
Customers without bank cards can pay by digital, mobile money accounts that can be charged with cash at kiosks. Mobile money is used widely in Senegal, along with other parts of Africa, instead of conventional banking.
Once the packages arrive in Senegal, motorbikes and vans parked outside Afrety’s depot deliver using GPS across a major city like Dakar.
“You have to be very, very, very flexible. That’s the key word,” Souane Diop, the 34-year-old CEO, told Reuters, outside his depot filled with packages labelled Amazon and other international brands.
Diop said the company started in 2018 with the aim of connecting informal networks of air travellers between France and Senegal.
From small beginnings it has grown to four to five metric tons by air and two to three containers by sea each week. To keep costs low, Afrety rents its warehouse in France and uses partners in the U.S. and China to handle trade there.
A REVOLUTION IN ONLINE SHOPPING IN AFRICA
Global logistics company Aramex is a much bigger rival, operating two platforms with overlapping services.
Whereas Afrety grew out of the deep connections between Senegal and former colonial power France, which has a large Senegalese diaspora population, Aramex in Sub-Saharan Africa relies on MyUS, which began by providing goods for U.S. expatriates living in Africa.
Aramex acquired MyUS in 2022 and in addition runs a platform that it created, Shop and Ship, which also delivers to many countries on the continent.
Aramex Group Chief Executive Amadou Diallo told Reuters the company aims to serve African customers that want choice and brands otherwise unavailable to them.
Angola is one of its main destinations, but it also operates in difficult environments, notably Somalia, which has been riven by war for decades.
ONLINE GROWTH BUT FUNDS ARE FINITE
Aramex says Sub-Saharan Africa is one of its fastest growing regions.
The products most in demand are electronics, apparel, toys and machinery for agriculture and auto parts. The company says it plans to double revenue from shipping these and other goods there by 2030.
But constraints on growth remain. For Aramex and also Afrety, customers mostly live in or near major cities, where relative wealth is concentrated.
That is because e-commerce in Africa is largely driven by economic hubs, according to Tech Cabal Insights, a consultancy.
Internet penetration has reached around 43% of Africa’s 1.5 billion people, but only a small fraction have enough income to shop online, it says. Even in Nigeria, West Africa’s economic powerhouse, only 1 in 3 internet users shop online.
In poorer regions like Central Africa, only about 1 in 20 people shop online, the consultancy says.
THE EXCEPTION OF SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa, the richest economy in sub-Saharan Africa, dominates the continent’s internet use and stands alone in Africa for its level of online shopping.
Online retail volumes in South Africa have grown by close to 35% annually over the last five years to about 140 billion rand in 2025 ($7.26 billion), Mastercard figures show.
The growth has drawn big brands to set up their first operations in sub-Saharan Africa. Amazon launched its first online marketplace in South Africa in 2024, competing with local e-commerce giant Takealot.
The first Walmart-branded stores in Africa opened in Johannesburg last year.
When asked, neither Amazon nor Walmart commented on whether they were considering expanding to other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. They also did not respond to requests for data on sales volumes to intermediaries.
COMPETITION INTENSIFIES IN STRONG MARKETS
Even if the online giants remain absent from much of Africa, the intermediaries face other competition.
Nigerian retail company Jumia, often known colloquially as the Amazon of Africa, operates in eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa, selling consumer goods ranging from fashion to electronics to home appliances. It has yet to make a profit, but says it expects to break even this year.
Its Chief Executive Francis Dufay told Reuters that the company is fending off competition from Chinese retail giants including Temu and Shein by tailoring its services to each country, including opening local help centres and pick-up points in rural areas.
Executives at both Jumia and Aramex said Nigeria was among the African e-commerce markets with most potential.
The Nigerian government does not routinely publish e-commerce figures but has cited United Nations figures estimating the total at around $75 billion in 2025.
Aramex opened a warehouse in Nigeria in April this year. Jumia’s Dufay said business there has grown by around 50% over the last quarter of 2025.
“It’s still totally underpenetrated We’re just at the beginning of our transformation In Nigeria,” he said.
(Reporting by Jessica Donati; editing by Barbara Lewis)
