Since attaining unicorn status in March, Nigerian fintech startup, Flutterwave, has through partnership and acquisition, onboarded other businesses – expanding its services in unified diversification. Now, the payment company is adding e-commerce to its brand of services.
The company, which has in a short period, distinguished itself as a leader in the African fintech market, announced the launch of its new e-commerce service, Flutterwave Market – an extension of its Flutterwave Store service – that will bring together a collection of merchant stores in one place.
The aim of the Flutterwave Market is to bring e-commerce a step closer to the brand’s merchants and their customers, helping merchants reach new customers and ultimately increase sales and revenue.
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The company said the Market will make it easier for customers to shop from a range of Store merchants as well as enable customers to seamlessly shop across a variety of products from different businesses at their convenience.
The Flutterwave Market will display Flutterwave stores across various product categories and countries. It will include features such as product search, category display, and country filter to help enhance the shopping experience. The solution will display product categories such as men’s and women’s fashion, beauty, and food—in line with the preferences of most shoppers on Flutterwave Store. Shoppers will be able to order products and have the products delivered to their preferred locations.
Though some companies have struggled to run profitably in Nigeria’s e-commerce space, the market remains widely open for growth. With Nigeria’s booming population and the increase in digital inclusion, online shopping is set to become a multi-billion naira market in the near future.
Recent data from Statista shows that as of 2020, the number of digital buyers in Africa experienced an increase to 281 million. The number of e-commerce users in the continent is also estimated to grow significantly, reaching over 334 million in 2021. By 2025, they could be roughly 520 million, almost doubling the number in 2019.
Flutterwave has been leveraging its dominance in the African market to sell its other services, and will count on it to push its e-commerce services.
Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flutterwave, said the aim is to take the Marketplace global.
“This is an exciting next chapter for the brand, and we’re excited to introduce this new marketplace experience to our merchants worldwide. Flutterwave Market is a fully functional e-commerce service that serves as a megastore where buyers can purchase a variety of goods from multiple sellers under one roof.
“Since the successful launch of Flutterwave Store, we have listened to our customers and acted on what they need to scale their businesses. Launching the new marketplace will transform their business, taking it to the next stage of growth. Flutterwave Market is for us a way to create endless possibilities for our Flutterwave Store users. We’re not merely aggregating existing stores, we’re positioning them to make more sales,” he said.
Flutterwave Store was launched in April 2020 with the aim of keeping the lights on for small businesses following lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic across various countries. The ecommerce solution has grown to over 30,000 businesses to date while adding features like discount codes and multiple product uploads. The Market provides an additional opportunity for shoppers to discover and shop from these businesses as opposed to only following their store link.
Bloomberg reported in October that Flutterwave will hit $3 billion valuation after fresh funding, making it the biggest payment company out of Africa. The new service additions, especially the e-commerce, is a bait that is likely going to attract more investors to the fast-growing startup.