Nigeria, South Africa, and Indonesia’s E-commerce Growth Set to Accelerate

New research from dLocal and AMI Highlights Distinct e-Commerce Drivers Shaping Payments Landscape in Nigeria, South Africa, and Indonesia

dLocal, an award-winning fintech company that specializes in cross-border payments for emerging markets, has partnered with Americas Market Intelligence (AMI) to research and outline local payments preferences of consumers in Nigeria, South Africa, and Indonesia. The findings, which will be included in dLocal’s 2019 e-commerce report, provide global merchants a landscape scan and strategy guide for consumer companies targeting the global economy’s most promising emerging markets, now including: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Paraguay, Peru, South Africa, Turkey, and Uruguay.

“Merchants looking to drive global expansion in the world’s most lucrative up-and-coming markets have previously been limited by a lack of reliable, consistent data upon which to inform decision-making and growth strategies”

The report offers global merchants an up-to-date market-by-market comparison. Some of the key findings include:

Nigeria: The Central Bank of Nigeria’s recent “Cashless Nigeria” initiative is expected to drive growth for e-commerce and digital payment companies.

• Retail accounts for $14.6B in transactions, accounting for 80% of all Nigerian transaction volume
• Domestic credit cards, called Verve Cards, compose 60% of the credit card market
• With smartphone adoption still only reaching 30%, USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) payments method show promise for non-smartphone users
• Low disposable incomes and rampant sales of fake goods online continue to present challenges for Nigerian e-commerce

South Africa: E-commerce payments are still dominated by traditional payment methods, but e-wallets are gaining traction as smartphone adoption increases.

• South Africa’s customer population is strongly divided between wealthy bank customers and the lower-income under-banked or unbanked population.
• E-wallet transactions make up only 6% of total e-commerce transactions, but 12% of retail B2C commerce.
• Local credit cards do not have a significant presence in South Africa, and the market is dominated by Visa and Mastercard, with 50% and 48% market share, respectively.
• 80% adoption of smartphones offers promising potential for e-wallet adoption, while a growing market for QR code payments caters to traditionally under-banked customers.

Indonesia: As Southeast Asia’s largest economy, payment companies are investing in the rapid growth of Indonesia’s e-wallets and alternative-payments landscape

• With 40% of Indonesia’s 254 million residents having access to traditional bank services, bank transfers represent the leading e-commerce payment method.
• Cash on Delivery (CoD) remains relatively steady around 14% of B2C e-commerce value
• E-wallets currently compose 7% of the total payments mix, but have nearly doubled in usage over the past year
• The top Indonesian e-wallets are Ovo and GoPay, while major international credit cards hold less than 6% of the market, collectively.

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The addition of these three key APAC and EMEA e-commerce hubs demonstrates dLocal’s continued dedication to provide online merchants, SaaS companies, shared-economy platforms, and other digital vendors with a comprehensive collection of data and analysis.

“Merchants looking to drive global expansion in the world’s most lucrative up-and-coming markets have previously been limited by a lack of reliable, consistent data upon which to inform decision-making and growth strategies,” explains dLocal CEO Sebastian Kanovich. “Through our in-depth proprietary country research, we strive to share the kind of localized market intelligence that empowers merchants to accelerate and optimize their growth in emerging markets.”

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To produce the report, dLocal and AMI compiled information and analysis available through publicly disclosed government statistics, local chambers of commerce, e-commerce associations, market reports and local press. Secondary research from over 30 e-commerce executives – including banks, payment gateways, local consultants and other service providers and merchants – also identifies best practices for merchants and outlines key learnings of operators active in these regions.

The report also includes additional updates and research to dLocal’s existing report. The Brazil country guide, for instance, has been expanded to include payment methods such as cash-on-cash delivery, direct-carrier billing and other novel payment methods.

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