Back in May 2017, MallForAfrica, an online shopping platform entered the Kenyan market after successful launches in West Africa and the Caribbean. The ecommerce platform offers its customer base with billions of products in U.K. and U.S.-based stores, and its local entry was motivated by the high number of Kenyans who have used the platform to import products from popular retailers such as Amazon, B&H and eBay.
About eBay, MallForAfrica has expanded its relationship with the American online marketplace to enable the sale of African goods to Americans. The sale will go live in the course of the week, where Kenyan sellers, in addition to those from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Burundi (more countries will be added in the coming days) will get the chance to market and sell their products to potential customers in the North America superpower. These products will be under merchandise categories that includes clothing, jewelry, fashion and art.
MallForAfrica will be selecting and managing payments for sellers via its proprietary platform. Shipping is handled by DHL.
“A year ago our focus was about how we could work with a partner to overcome shipping, payment, and trade barriers to offer eBay’s selection in Africa,” Sylvie de Wever, eBay’s General Manager of Latin America and US exports. “If you think about our purpose, which is connecting millions of buyers and sellers around the world and creating economic opportunity, it makes sense to open up the American market to sellers in Africa,” she adds.
It should be remembered that selection of products made in Africa will be based on quality that will be enforced by MallForAfrica’s new association called Africa Made Product Standards (AMPS) that examines and verifies the status of African merchandise.
The partnership looks forward to diversifying the reach of African sellers and artists, which will make them earn and favourably compete on a global scale.
