Amazon, the American online retail giant says it will launch in South Africa in 2024 as Amazon.co.za. This will be the second African country for which it will launch, after Egypt in 2021, taking over souq.com. Ahead of the launch, the retail giant has opened opportunities for small and local South African businesses to register. Economies like South Africa are ripe for global scale in e-commerce while in Nigeria, e-commerce firms like Konga, Jumia, Payporte, Jiji, Kara, etc. have struggled to scale as expected. According to Geopoll, South Africa’s e-commerce grew by 66% in 2020 on the back of COVID-19 considerably changed consumer behavior and increased digital adoption. Notwithstanding, it is expected that Amazon will raise competition for local e-commerce firms like Wish, Takealot, Superbalist, etc.
