CIO Year Ahead: E-Commerce Trends for 2022

In the recent years, we have seen E-commerce grow tremendously in Africa as we go through digital transformation as a continent.

Jumia Kenya’s Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), Kenneth Oyolla gave a presentation on the e-commerce trends to expect in 2022. Kenneth noted that more people are getting online in Africa and this has really fueled the growth of e-commerce.

He further noted that this year, a lot of tier 2 towns keeps growing and the residents of these towns are learning about e-commerce. According to Kenneth, this growth has come about as a result of decentralization of the government in Kenya with the county governments fueling the growth of this country.

“For people who are always looking to import products, especially TVs, 2021 was not a great year because of the travel restrictions caused by Covid. In 2022, we are beginning to see an improved search for imported products and we anticipate this to grow this year,” he said.

In  terms of electronics’ purchases, the Jumia CCO said that people seem to be improving the quality of appliances they buy or aim to buy.

“For Television sets, we used to see people looking for the 32 inch TV a lot but today more people are looking for the 43 inch smart TVs. People are now looking for smart TVs because data and Wi-Fi is becoming affordable,” Kenneth gave an example.

He further said that purchases of mobile phones has also been improving and will keep doing so as more Africans are realizing the importance of smartphones in the continent’s digital transformation journey.

“The prices for phones with 2gb RAM and 32GB ROM are dropping and are coming to break the Ksh. 10,000 mark. This means that more people will be able to afford smartphones and this will increase the purchases for the same,” Kenneth explained.

In terms of home appliances, Kenneth noted that people have been buying air-fryers a lot in 2021 and that will also be expected to increase.

There has also been a rise in some odd categories in e-commerce. The Jumia CCO further said that people are beginning to make orders in these categories for example Motor Accessories parts, Building materials etc.