You must be very surprised to know that despite how big Amazon is in some parts of the world such as the US, UK and even India to an extent, we can tell you that it is only available in a few countries so far and there is a lot of markets that Amazon has not tapped yet. Also, we were surprised to note that Amazon is currently live only in one African country that is Egypt. But that will soon change as Amazon is going to launch its e-commerce shopping services in South Africa next year and this will not be an extension of Amazon.com but it will host the service on a standalone local domain as well.
Amazon said in a statement that “The launch of Amazon.co.za in 2024 will provide independent sellers throughout the country an opportunity to rapidly launch, grow, and scale their businesses,” With this announcement, it is worth noting that this is only the second African country after Egypt where the U.S. e-commerce giant has set up a locally-dedicated website. This does give you an idea of how Amazon sees the market in African countries but also regarding the demand of e-commerce in South Africa which is growing and the company does see an opportunity.
It is also worth noting how Amazon manages to comply with the local competition authority’s rules, which mandate online retailers to separate their retail division from their marketplace operations. Also, Amazon might have based their decision to enter the South African market which is the most developed market in Africa on the demands they have seen during the pandemic but it is also seen that the rise in e-commerce has stagnated now, and South Africans are returning to shopping malls again as Covid restrictions have been lifted. Having said that, we do hope that Amazon makes it big in the South African market which is seen as its entry in the African markets and if it does, we can see its expansion in countries like Nigeria, Namibia, Lagos, and others as well which will be a boost for the local economy.
