African consumers are increasingly buying products from global retailers such as Amazon and Walmart despite the companies having little or no direct presence across much of sub-Saharan Africa.
A growing network of package-forwarding companies is helping shoppers overcome some of the continent’s biggest e-commerce barriers, including limited access to bank cards, the absence of formal street addresses and costly international shipping.
These intermediaries provide customers with overseas delivery addresses, receive and consolidate their purchases and then transport the goods to Africa for final delivery.
Senegalese startup Afrety offers one example of how the system works.
The company gives customers access to warehouse addresses in France, the United States and China, allowing them to order products from retailers that do not deliver directly to Senegal or neighbouring markets.
Purchases made by the same customer can be combined into a single package, repacked and shipped to West Africa. Customs duties are paid when the goods arrive, generating revenue for local authorities.
Mobile money replaces bank cards
Customers who do not have credit or debit cards can pay using mobile-money accounts, which can be topped up with cash at local kiosks.
Mobile money has become widely used in Senegal and elsewhere in Africa, where millions of people remain outside the conventional banking system.
Once shipments reach Afrety’s depot in Senegal, packages are delivered by motorbike or van. Drivers use GPS to locate customers in cities such as Dakar, where many homes and businesses do not have standard street addresses.
“You have to be very, very, very flexible. That’s the key word,” Afrety Chief Executive Souane Diop said outside a depot filled with packages from Amazon and other international retailers.
Diop founded the company in 2018, initially seeking to organise informal delivery networks involving air travellers moving between France and Senegal.
The business has since expanded to handle between four and five metric tons of air freight and two to three sea containers each week.
To limit expenses, Afrety rents warehouse space in France and works with partner companies to manage shipments in the United States and China.
International logistics companies expand
Afrety faces competition from major logistics firms such as Aramex, which operates the MyUS and Shop and Ship package-forwarding platforms.
MyUS began by supplying goods to American expatriates living overseas before being acquired by Aramex in 2022.
Shop and Ship also gives customers access to delivery addresses in international markets and forwards purchases to numerous African countries.
Aramex Group Chief Executive Amadou Diallo said the company aims to give African consumers access to brands and products that are not available locally.
Angola is among the company’s biggest African destinations, while Aramex also operates in more difficult markets, including Somalia.
The company says sub-Saharan Africa is one of its fastest-growing regions.
Electronics, clothing, toys, agricultural equipment and vehicle parts are among the products most frequently shipped. Aramex plans to double the revenue generated from the region by 2030.
Growth remains concentrated in major cities
Despite increasing demand, African e-commerce remains heavily concentrated in major urban centres, where internet access and disposable income are higher.
TechCabal Insights estimates that internet penetration has reached around 43% of Africa’s population of approximately 1.5 billion people.
However, only a relatively small proportion of internet users have enough disposable income to shop online regularly.
Even in Nigeria, West Africa’s largest economy, only about one-third of internet users purchase products online. In parts of Central Africa, the figure falls to around one person in every 20.
Customers using package-forwarding services also tend to live in or close to major cities, limiting the companies’ reach into poorer and more remote areas.
South Africa leads the continent
South Africa remains the continent’s most developed e-commerce market and is the main exception to the limited direct presence of international retailers.
Online retail sales in the country have grown by nearly 35% annually during the past five years, reaching approximately 140 billion rand, or $7.26 billion, in 2025, according to Mastercard figures.
Amazon launched its first African online marketplace in South Africa in 2024, entering competition with domestic e-commerce leader Takealot.
The first Walmart-branded stores on the continent opened in Johannesburg in 2025.
Neither Amazon nor Walmart said whether they planned to expand into additional sub-Saharan African markets. The companies also did not provide information on sales made through package-forwarding intermediaries.
Jumia faces growing Chinese competition
Local and regional platforms are also competing for Africa’s growing online consumer market.
Nigeria-based Jumia, frequently described as the “Amazon of Africa,” operates in eight sub-Saharan countries and sells products including clothing, electronics and household appliances.
Although the company has yet to record an annual profit, it expects to reach break-even this year.
Jumia Chief Executive Francis Dufay said the company is responding to competition from Chinese retailers such as Temu and Shein by adapting its services to individual markets.
That strategy includes opening customer-support centres and package collection points in rural areas.
Executives at both Jumia and Aramex identified Nigeria as one of the African markets with the greatest potential for e-commerce growth.
Nigeria does not regularly publish official online retail statistics, but the government has cited United Nations estimates placing the country’s e-commerce market at approximately $75 billion in 2025.
Aramex opened a Nigerian warehouse in April, while Jumia said its business in the country grew by around 50% during the final quarter of 2025.
“It’s still totally underpenetrated,” Dufay said. “We’re just at the beginning of our transformation in Nigeria.”