Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Mall for Africa CEO Chris Folayan (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: What is the size of your customer base? How many African consumers are interacting with your mobile application to buy products from the US and UK?

Chris Folayan: We have several hundred thousand customers on our platform. The amount of sales done on our mobile platform is about 52% right now.

Sramana Mitra: The rest are desktop?

Chris Folayan: Yes, desktop or laptop.

Sramana Mitra: What percentage of the total mobile population of Nigeria is that?

Chris Folayan: It’s a tiny percentage. It’s probably less than 5%. There are currently 63 million active Internet users in Nigeria.

Sramana Mitra: What is the segmentation? How do you characterize the people who are transacting online, and ordering products through cross-border e-commerce?

Chris Folayan: Cross-border e-commerce is not something that we currently do. My definition of cross-border e-commerce is within Africa. That’s what you’re talking about when you’re talking about cross border, correct?

Sramana Mitra: Not really. We did a story on your equivalent in Russia. There’s a company based out of Chicago that does exactly what you do for the Russian customers. I don’t want to get caught up in the semantics though. Who are the customers? What is the profile of the customer who feels comfortable doing e-commerce transactions and feels comfortable doing e-commerce transactions by ordering from the US or UK? The next question will be what kind of products?

Chris Folayan: As for the profile of our customers, they’re mostly women and individuals between the ages of 19 to 47. That’s the hot age on our platform. 62% of the people on our platform are women. Most of the items being purchased are clothing and accessories – anything in the apparel industry. Electronics would be the next. The third category would be engine or car parts. That’s mostly what’s been purchased. In the apparel, it’s mostly women’s clothing, children’s clothing, and then clothing for men.

Sramana Mitra: Are these designer clothing?

Chris Folayan: Yes, it is mostly branded clothing. Africa, in general, is into brands. They know their brands really well. They mostly buy branded clothing.

Sramana Mitra: So far we’ve talked about what’s happening now. What’s your prediction about what’s coming in the horizon? I’m specifically interested in both your drivers. One is e-commerce and two is mobile.

Chris Folayan: I think for the industry, it’s very clear and evident that e-commerce is where it’s at. You have brick-and-mortar stores not doing so well, because they do not have the choices that people have when they go online. The only advantage the brick-and-mortar store has right now is instant gratification because you can go in and buy right then and there. The difference with online is you are not able to touch and feel it and you don’t get that instant gratification of purchasing and walking out.

More people are getting used to the fact that they can wait a day or two, or even a week for an item that they know they want. They even feel that they’re probably getting it at a better price because you go online and start doing price comparisons. I do see the trend in Africa as a whole shifting towards e-commerce just because of all the advantages of buying something online. The only disadvantage you have regarding online purchase is instant gratification. That’s my view on e-commerce. I do see a really huge uptick there. I do see brick-and-mortar not eradicating itself entirely but reducing significantly.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Thought Leaders in E-Commerce: Mall for Africa CEO Chris Folayan
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