By Aduragbemi Omiyale
A new e-commerce platform to scale the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has been introduced by Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payments technology company.
The new platform called Flutterwave Market is an extension of the Flutterwave Store service that will bring together a collection of merchant stores in one place.
A statement issued by the company said Flutterwave Market brings e-commerce a step closer to the brand’s merchants and their customers.
The aim of the new Flutterwave Market is to help merchants reach new customers and ultimately increase sales and revenue. This will not only make it easier for customers to shop from a range of Flutterwave Store merchants but will also 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 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 at their preferred locations, the firm said.
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.
“This is an exciting next chapter for the Flutterwave brand, and we’re excited to introduce this new marketplace experience to our merchants worldwide,” said Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Flutterwave. “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 added.
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 e-commerce solution has grown to over 30,000 businesses to date while adding features like discount codes and multiple product uploads. The Flutterwave Market provides an additional opportunity for shoppers to discover and shop from these businesses as opposed to only following their store link.
Dipo Olowookere 
Adedapo Adesanya