Modern online sales business booming in Somalia

Africa-Turkey business conference concludes

"The best way to compare the two is by comparing them. Amazon has now opened official stores, while large stores like Walmart have also started selling online," said Said.

Now, customers have started to see products in stores, try them on, and then order them online, and Said's business is booming.

A customer who purchased a product
People pay for the Zaad service, which operates in the self-declared independent republic of Somaliland.

Now, Muraadso has opened various stores in Somaliland's cities, and has hired more employees than before.

According to Mathew Reed of Ovum, the online shopping business is growing in Africa, but there are still challenges.

"Many people live in poverty, and online shopping is a service that is suitable for the middle class, so the challenges facing this market are not limited to Somalia," Reed added.

But the growing use of mobile phones shows great promise for this market to grow in the coming years. By 2020, 725 million people in Africa will use mobile phones.

Somalia also has a submarine cable internet connection, which was completed in 2013 by Liquid Telecom. The cable runs through 11 African countries.

Growing cities, increasing population, and a growing youth population are other reasons that are increasing the use of this online shopping market, known in a foreign language as e-commence.

The most common way Muraadso reaches its customers is through Facebook, which is used by most Somalis.

The leading online shopping countries in Africa include South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria, and include the famous company Jumia, which operates like Amazon.
"Jumia recognized the differences between them and Amazon, such as Africa's infrastructure and culture, so they approached the task differently from Amazon," said Abdiqani Diiriye, head of Somalia-based Innovate Ventures.

Among the companies currently planning online sales is the telecommunications company Safaricom, which has announced that by the end of this year it will launch an online marketplace where everything can be purchased, not only in Kenya but also in other African countries.