Afrigather 
Social commerce is on the rise throughout the continent, and the numbers are clear proof. In line with a survey that lined over 4,000 small and medium-sized companies (SMBs) throughout 8 international locations final 12 months, over 80% of the respondents reported that social commerce had been necessary within the progress of their enterprise. The identical survey discovered that for 55% of the respondents, social media apps like Fb, WhatsApp, and Instagram helped them begin their companies.
The consequences of those numbers mirror on the financial system. The African social commerce market is predicted to develop by 70.3% yearly to achieve US$8 billion in 2022 and document a compound annual progress charge of 55.2% between 2022 and 2028, in response to the Q1 2022 Social Commerce Survey.
This progress might be attributed to how straightforward and reasonably priced it’s for companies to promote their merchandise by means of social media. There is no such thing as a want for a cumbersome registration course of, and no additional expenses to promote your items on-line, and there’s a budding market—over 384 million Africans use social media—and there are over 281 million online shoppers on the continent. Mainly, these apps have lowered the boundaries for companies to promote their merchandise on-line.
Serving to on-line sellers make extra gross sales
Now, Catlog has added one other dimension to make it simpler for companies to promote their merchandise on-line. The startup, which is backed by Ventures Platform, DFS Labs, Voltron Capital, and HOAQ, just lately launched a brand new approach for folks to search out gadgets to purchase with hashtags on social media. The characteristic permits social media customers to search out merchandise by merely trying to find the product and Catlog’s hashtag.
On a name with Catlog’s CEO and co-founder, Silas Adedoyin, he stated that the startup determined to launch the characteristic as a result of “we’ve been attempting to determine methods to assist our sellers make extra gross sales.” Catlog’s new characteristic permits anybody to seek for a product on Twitter with the hashtag #findwithcatlog. All a vendor has to do to make use of this characteristic is add their product on Catlog.
After looking out with the hashtag, a possible purchaser will discover a number of posts in regards to the product looked for. To purchase this product, they’d click on the hyperlink connected to their desired product after which be redirected to Catlog’s web site. On the web site, an purchaser would fill out their contact data to make an order, and after this, a message could be despatched to the vendor on WhatsApp. At this stage, each events would be capable of finalise the acquisition.
Meta apps akin to Fb, WhatsApp, and Instagram dominate the social commerce area, however Catlog determined to roll out this new characteristic on Twitter. Adedoyin defined that Twitter was the primary platform on which the characteristic launched due to the convenience with which it might be pulled off. On the social media platform, the account devoted to this characteristic has over 14,000 tweets and near 2,000 followers. He added that after perfecting this characteristic, Instagram could be the subsequent app that the characteristic could be launched on.
When requested in regards to the affect the characteristic had in its first few days of launching, Adedoyin stated that there had been a 70% improve within the variety of day by day visits to Catlog’s shops. In line with him, the variety of orders has gone up by about 25% because the characteristic rolled out. He, nonetheless, declined to share numbers.
In line with Adedoyin, there are different options nonetheless within the pipeline that may make it straightforward to promote merchandise by means of Catlog. The CEO stated there are plans to launch a cost stack later within the 12 months, permitting sellers on Catlog to obtain funds by means of a pockets. A supply choice may even be obtainable earlier than the final quarter of the 12 months runs out. There are additionally plans to construct an app with a chat characteristic particularly for industrial functions.
Constructing all these options doesn’t come low-cost. Adedoyin defined that to maintain the lights on, Catlog needed to improve the worth it expenses sellers by 66%, from ₦900 to ₦1,500, due to the brand new options, Nigeria’s crippling inflation charge (20.77%), and the truth that the startup has to report its earnings in {dollars}. There’s additionally a premium package deal, priced at ₦4,500.
The social commerce ecosystem
The expansion of the social commerce ecosystem in Nigeria is kind of fascinating to witness in real-time. Earlier within the 12 months, Bumpa, a social commerce startup, introduced that it had built-in with Meta to allow social retailers on its platform to handle their direct messages (DMs) from Meta platforms instantly on Bumpa, with no need to go to any of the Meta platforms.
For the tens of millions of web shoppers in Africa, revolutionary, handy, and environment friendly options like these from Catlog and Bumpa will assist enhance the web purchasing expertise and develop the sector. That is echoed by a PwC survey, which experiences that consumers who’ve a optimistic buyer expertise are keen to spend as much as 16% extra, and are more likely to stick with the model that supplied the service.
