Nigeria, Africa’s biggest and 26th largest economy in the world is experiencing a boost in online businesses due to the massive surge in m-commerce. Online shopping community Kaymu.com.ng has witnessed a direct impact on its sales via social media.
According to Evangeline Wiles, Managing Director of Kaymu, “With more people spending time on social media via their mobile phones, Kaymu is able to reach and engage new and existing buyers all over the country”
The rise in mobile phone traffic to online stores is incited by the overall trend of social media becoming a major marketing channel for brands. In a survey released by the founder of Shopify, Tobe Lutke, Facebook accounted for less than 5% of traffic to ecommerce sites on their personal computers, that number jumps to 7% when looking at mobile phones in the United States of America.
In comparison, search based traffic from Google represented 18% of traffic from computers, but just 12% on mobile phones. This data seems to show that computers are being used to search for more commodity-type goods, while social media and mobile are used for more spontaneous, discovery-based purchases.
This is not farfetched in Nigeria as shopping on mobile browsers seems to be the most popular way to make purchases with 43% of Nigerian mobile shoppers stating a preference to shop using the phone’s browser, compared to 34% who prefer to shop from an app (and 23% who have no preference), this is according to a report by Paypal.
This trend could be attributed to the number of hours spent on social media via mobile phones for leisurely activities as opposed to the time spent on the computer at work or at school attending to non-social functions.
Kaymu’s Head of Social Media and Community Africa, Abiola Fabio stated “The rise in mobile shopping also brings about another fascinating trend, called ‘shopping on the go’. In other words, shopping is no longer something people go and do anymore; it’s something they are always doing”.
A few months back, Kaymu launched its mobile app on iOS designed to make online shopping in Nigeria even easier and more convenient, with features that enable sellers to list products and buyers to select from a wide variety of products at a glance.
