The DHL Africa eShop app was introduced in April, and it creates a link between more than 200 sellers in the U.S. and U.K. — everything from Neiman Marcus to Macy’s — and African consumers.
This is the second time the eShop has been expanded, after it brought on nine more markets in May. Along with the eShop’s rapid growth, rival Jumia recently had a large capital raise.
Chris Folayan, DHL partner MallforAfrica’s CEO, said the eShop brings eCommerce capabilities right to African doorsteps.
“For some of these countries no one has really tapped into eCommerce the way we’re tapping into it, with an ability to buy online and also buy online directly from places like Macy’s or Amazon,” he said.
Customers can pay with local payments options corresponding to their area. For example, Kenyans can use M-Pesa and Nigerians can use Paga. DHL takes advantage of its already robust delivery presence in the country to handle deliveries.
“We will be launching with a promo, buy any 5 items from over 100 retail partners and get a $20 flat shipping fee. This is DHL’s way of showing they are dominant in shipping and eCommerce in Africa,” the eShop said.
Both the DHL Africa eShop, which said that it’s “Africa’s Largest Online Shopping Platform,” and Jumia, which said, “We believe that our platform is the largest e-commerce marketplace in Africa,” are vying for the position of Africa’s largest.
While other services like Amazon and Alibaba have talked about expanding into Africa, none have made such deep forays as DHL and Jumia.
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