Category: Featured News

M-commerce is becoming increasingly commonplace in Africa

| October 13, 2015

A new report from the GSMA has shown that smartphone shopping and transactions are on the rise.

The most recent GSMA: Mobile 360 Series report, which focused on the Africa conference, showed that digital and m-commerce are rapidly rising in Africa and that this is being greatly driven by a boost in internet penetration throughout the continent.

The report’s findings were based on consumer research data that was collected in March 2015 by Ipsos.

What the report showed was that 20 percent of internet users in South Africa have made a purchase online either over computers or m-commerce. It also revealed that an additional 48 percent said that they expected to shop online in the future. It also said that mobile shopping will become a key component in the growth of the overall digital commerce market within Sub-Saharan Africa, since most internet users within that part of the world will be accessing the internet by way of smartphones and other mobile devices.

These findings and conclusions align well with those made by other m-commerce focused reports.

M-commerce - AfricaA survey released by In Mobi in 2014 was already showing that 83 percent of consumers said that they intended to shop online over a smartphone or tablet in the following year. This was an increase of 15 percent over that firm’s figures from 2013 and it involved the participation of 14,000 people across 14 different countries.

This is only being helped by the fact that there are now several established online shopping sites within the Sub-Saharan African region and many of them are offering transactions that can be conducted cross-border. Jumia stands out among them. It has been around since 2012, at which time it was launched through the funding provided by Rocket Internet. That company has been greatly successful and has undergone a considerable expansion throughout that part of the continent, starting in Nigeria, but moving outward to a number of other countries such as Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Cameroon and Senegal.

A central component of Jumia’s strategy is m-commerce. It has already entered in to partnerships with Millicom and MTN to push growth into the future through increases in traffic from mobile users by way of promotions, cross-selling, joint advertising campaigns and payment facilitation.

Mobile marketing trends show a focus on overcoming ad blockers

| October 12, 2015

As ad blocking apps become more popular, marketers are working on more appealing alternatives.

As ad blocking apps have suddenly exploded in popularity – particularly now that they have been permitted on iPhones and other iOS devices – mobile marketing firms have found themselves taking a cold hard look at the techniques that they have been using to reach consumers, and what they can do to overcome being potentially blocked.

Advertisers are finding themselves experimenting with different ways to reach customers over smartphones.

A growing belief is that mobile marketing companies will need to start looking for new, relevant, context-driven techniques to connect with consumers in a way that is appealing enough that they will not want to take measures to block them off. Two areas that many feel will be grabbing a great deal of focus will be in-app advertising and branded content. While it is too early to tell precisely what the top methods will be, these are some of the main guesses, so far.

At this point, it has not yet reached the point in which mobile marketing budgets are being slashed back.

Mobile Marketing - Ad BlockingSo far, ad blocking apps haven’t had enough of an impact to stop industry execs from wanting to spend over this channel. That said, there is still a risk that a reduction in mobile web ad inventory could occur as publishers and advertisers gauge the impact of ad blockers and attempt to find other methods of reaching consumers in which they are less likely to be blocked.

According to A.T. Kerney media and technology practice partner, Greg Portell, “Budgets will continue to shift to mobile as they catch up with the shift in eyeballs.” He added that “There should be a period of time with spend in mobile rising regardless of ad tech.” Portell pointed out that there has been some worry expressed over the risks associated with ad blocking software, which will help to drive experimentation to a greater degree than has been the norm until now.

He feels that there will likely be a rise in branded and native sponsored content. He also underscored the importance of providing consumers with relevant communications within an appropriate context, saying that it “transcends ad blocking”