In its report on e-commerce in ECCAS (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome, DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola) in 2021, GSMA (an organization that brings together telecom operators in the world) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) deliver data on social commerce (use of social networks for e-commerce transactions) in Cameroon.

"The importance of social commerce is particularly evident in emerging e-commerce markets...where it accounts for the bulk of e-commerce activity. A survey in Cameroon found that 88 percent of respondents had purchased items through WhatsApp, while 68 percent had purchased through Facebook," the report said.

According to the same source, social commerce offers SMEs the opportunity to formalize aspects of their business while operating in markets that lack some of the regulatory and infrastructural elements typical of e-commerce. This can add greater value to those in the informal economy, which is estimated to number around 2 billion people worldwide.

"Research conducted by the GSMA has highlighted that more than a third of social commerce providers target women, rural or low-income groups as their primary user base," the report learns.

However, the report notes, one of the main limitations of social commerce is that most platforms are not yet designed to handle end-to-end transactions. As a result, they require additional support for logistics, delivery and payments, which could potentially lead to friction in the online journey between merchants and customers.

This dominance of WhatsApp in social commerce in Cameroon contrasts with the popularity of Facebook. Indeed, according to the results of a study by Médiamétrie, the French leader in media studies, published on March 1, 2018, 64.6% of individuals surveyed have a preference for Facebook, which still comes out on top, followed by Google+, Instagram and then Twitter.

Source: investiraucameroun.com