Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which mark the beginning of the festive season when most major American retailers offer promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season, are US’s biggest digital shopping days of the year that bring down e-commerce websites and generate the most online transactions of any single day due to discounts.
But to the majority of shoppers living in Sub-Saharan Africa, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just terms associated with America’s Thanksgiving Holiday and have nothing to do with Africa.
Of late, however, this is changing.
Online Shopping in Africa is steadily becoming a reality due to affordable access to the Internet via mobile phones and cyber cafe’s. The launch of PayPal in Africa especially in economies like Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Kenya has also made it possible for shoppers in Africa to buy goods from around the world with ease.
To make things even better, PayPal has partnered with USaddress.com, a logistics firm so that anyone from Sub-Saharan Africa can visit any US online retailer, get a US home address from USaddress.com to use on sites such as eBay, Amazon, Fab.com, Crocks.com, Hhgregg, TigerDirect, Rakuten,among others.
American shopping websites and have access to millions of products available online. Shoppers are also promised up to $10 off any deliveries from the US via USaddress.com. After paying for goods online using PayPal, USaddress.com will deliver goods to everyone’s doorstep anywhere in the world including in Kenya, South Africa and most sub-Saharan Africa countries.
PayPal is not making this sound better for Black Friday and Cyber Monday alone, PayPal is available to people in 203 markets, and allows customers to get paid or pay in more than 100 currencies, withdraw funds to their bank accounts in 57 currencies and hold balances in their PayPal accounts in 26 currencies. The eBay Inc. owned firm makes money work seamlessly around the globe and aims to enhance cross border trade and providing more opportunities for African consumers especially with the USaddress deal.
PayPal recognises that online commerce creates a world of opportunities for buyers, but entering card details on an overseas website can be concerning. To make it worse, millions on the continent don’t have credit cards but with 157 million active accounts in 203 markets, PayPal is making it possible for everyone to buy online from around the world.
For those who want to shop in China, PayPal already has a deal with Alibaba to power online payments for thousands of merchants selling on the giant marketplace.