DHL debuts DHL Africa eShop, an e-commerce app powered by startup MallforAfrica, for global retailers wanting to more easily sell into African consumer markets
Jake Bright / TechCrunch : Tweets: @nanaspio Tweets: @nanaspio : Sad @ this news. 1/ Local infant industries may not compete; 2/ World only sees Africa as consumer mkt not investment mkt. 3/ Why do our govt not protect local SMEs like UAE & China do? 4/ Meanwhile costs $15/kg to export w/ DHL in Abidjan. #ecommerce http://techcrunch.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
DHL's launch lands weeks after Jumia filed for the first NYSE listing by an African tech startup, turning 2019 into the year African e-commerce got both a local champion on Wall Street and a global logistics incumbent building its own storefront. The app itself is powered by MallforAfrica, meaning DHL bought its way into consumer-facing retail rather than building it.
The reaction captured in the coverage cuts both ways: the same pipe that lets global retailers reach African shoppers charges roughly $15/kg to export from Abidjan, so critics read the move as deepening a one-way flow of foreign goods into African consumer markets rather than investment in local production.
First-order effects
- Global retailers gain a turnkey channel into African consumer markets without building local operations, while Jumia — fresh off its IPO and already wrestling with logistics costs and customer trust per its own coverage — picks up a competitor whose core competence is exactly the hard part: delivery.
Second-order effects
- The bet scaled fast: within months DHL had expanded Africa eShop to 13 more markets for a 34-country footprint, forcing pan-African platforms to compete on cross-border fulfillment rather than just local assortment.
- Local SMEs face an asymmetric playing field — inbound goods ride DHL's network while outbound export costs stay prohibitive, echoing the protectionist playbook the coverage attributes to UAE and China.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, African e-commerce consolidates around whoever controls logistics and foreign supply: six years later Jumia was ramping up China-based merchants to fight Temu and Shein, suggesting the continent's platforms increasingly mediate imported demand rather than incubate local sellers.
- That trajectory keeps the infant-industry question alive for African governments — whether to tax or restrict cross-border platforms the way larger economies shield domestic sectors.
The trend: African e-commerce is being pulled toward globally owned logistics-and-supply pipelines, with local platforms surviving by importing assortment rather than building domestic merchant bases.