'Nigerians leading in mobile commerce race'
Nigeria
,
27 Jun 2016
'Nigerians leading in mobile commerce race'
Nigerian consumers are ahead of their counterparts when it comes to mobile commerce, claims online payments company Paypal.
According to the research conducted by global market research company Ipsos, Nigeria is the third largest mobile commerce market in terms of the incidence of mobile shoppers amongst the countries that participated in the research.
"With 72% of online consumers shopping on a smartphone in Nigeria, the country follows China (86%) and India (82%) in terms of incidence of shopping via smartphone. The global average across the 29 surveyed markets is 47%." detailed the report.
"In terms of the value of this spend, consumers estimate that mobile shopping accounts for 38% of their total online spend, and 36% of cross-border purchases."
Growth trend likely to continue
The survey predicts that mobile spend will increase by 39% to N78.3 billion in 2016, and by 31% to N102.2 billion by the end of the following year, from N56.2 billion in 2015 topping both China (38%) and UAE (35%).
Efi Dahan, PayPal's General Manager Africa and Israel, says Nigerian online shoppers have realised that the world is their shopping mall. "They are no longer limited to what they can buy domestically, and are confidently scouring the globe for great deals, more choice, high quality and premier brands. They are doing so wherever and whenever they want to, using their mobile devices as an essential shopping tool."
Overall, online shopping in Nigeria is growing rapidly with 6 out of 10 Internet users in the West African country shopping online in the 12-month period the survey covered. Total online spend is predicted to increase from N128.1 billion in 2015 (which itself was a jump of 58% from estimated spending in 2014) to N172 billion in 2016, up by 34% from the previous year. This growth continues to N217.7 billion in 2017 -- 27% more than in 2016.
Intracontinental online shopping is also strong, with 15% of online shoppers shopping online in the rest of Africa ranking it the fourth biggest region for Nigerians, mainly from South Africa (11%).