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Amazon plans to launch online shopping in two African nations

By our News Team | 2022

Leaked documents published in the US apparently show that Amazon.com will target South Africa and Nigeria early next year.

E-commerce giant Amazon.com is planning to launch operations in both South Africa and Nigeria within the next year, according to international media reports.

The story was broken yesterday (Monday) by the US-based publication Business Insider, which cited leaked documents it has seen. Other media have since also reported the claims.

Timelines for the launches are supposedly February 2023 for South Africa and April 2023 for Nigeria. Both nations have strong e-commerce players of their own, which could be adversely impacted by the Amazon arrival. Among them are Jumia and Takealot.

Image by Preis_King from Pixabay

Amazon already has data centre infrastructure in Cape Town, which it opened in 2020. “In fact, a portion of [Amazon Web Services’] cloud offering was originally developed in Cape Town and the city is host to a large (and growing) Amazon software development centre,” the locally based technology website Tech Central said.

European and South American countries also being targeted

Other countries that are seemingly also being target by Amazon.com are Belgium, Chile and Colombia.

All countries mentioned in the leaked documents are apparently planning to launch with their own marketplace and access to Amazon’s fulfilment service, called Fulfillment by Amazon.

“Plans for the new marketplaces show how, even as Amazon dials back parts of its retail business in the US, it continues to invest in areas that can generate long-term growth,” Business Insider said.

“Amazon has an expanding global footprint, with marketplaces in 20 different countries. Most are in more mature economies, and Amazon has so far had a relatively small presence in emerging markets like South America and Africa.

For Amazon, expanding into more countries now makes sense. The company needs to generate more demand, as growth is slowing across the board following a two-year, pandemic-driven sales explosion.”

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