Lessons learned from inclusive e-commerce
E-commerce is one of the fastest-growing sectors in Africa, projected to reach over 153 million users by 2029. The size of Africa’s e-commerce market is projected to increase by nearly 40% in the next four years, reaching $56 billion by 2029, from $40 billion in 2025. In India, even faster growth is expected: the e-commerce industry is projected to expand from $67 billion in 2025 to approximately $100 billion by 2029, with 375 million users.
Naturally, most e-commerce companies started by focusing on wealthier populations located in easily accessible locations (namely large cities), as attempting to reach more remote customers meant overcoming not just lower purchasing power and higher transport costs, but also connectivity challenges.
Yet today there is a unique opportunity to make e-commerce more inclusive and reach more remote areas with quality products.
The article below highlights how Jumia, Frontier Markets and Niokobok have worked on strategies enabling either improved inclusion of customers otherwise underserved (due to geographic or economic challenges), or improved livelihoods for value chain intermediaries.
In the 2023 webinar, we dug deeper into how top e-commerce companies like Jumia Group, African Queen Limited (AQL), Niokobok, Frontier Markets, and Copia have made their models and offerings more inclusive.
Finally, the 2022 case study highlights how Jumia worked on the roll-out of its services to secondary cities in Côte d’Ivoire. This research, supported by British International Investment, aimed to gain a high-level understanding of the impact of Jumia’s business model in secondary cities, by measuring the impact of three pilot initiatives on both consumers and sales agents.
Article: How can e-commerce companies turn inclusive strategies into business advantage? (2025)
Webinar: Making e-commerce inclusive in low and middle-income countries (2023)
