E-commerce Platform

How Tracey Turner Built an AfricaTailored E-commerce Platform

Tracey Pettengill Turner is a serial social entrepreneur and the founder of Copia Global, a Nairobi-based e-commerce platform for middleto-low-income Africans. She launched the startup in 2012, long before major accelerators like Y-Combinator became interested in Africa.

She was, however, no stranger to entrepreneurship, having graduated from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. She saw that although there was a lot of innovation pushing western e-commerce models to reach rich people all over the world, there was very little attention towards inventing for middle and low-income African customers who were being left behind as the economy digitised.

“If we can reinvent e-commerce in a way that can reach the middle-to-low income consumer, that’s a massive opportunity, both commercially and socially, in terms of being able to have a significant impact on the market,” said Turner.

Middle and low-income Africans in Kenya and Uganda are served by an e-commerce platform. So far, the company reports having served 1.6 million consumers via 30,000 pickup stations.

Turner had to start from scratch and define what e-commerce means in that context. Low smartphone and internet penetration, reliance on cash, a lack of addresses and delivery infrastructure, and lower consumer buying power are some of the primary hurdles for e-commerce in Africa, particularly in rural Africa. Turner launched Copia Global with these limitations in mind. The e-commerce platform collaborates with agents, who are local business owners that may assist clients with internet transactions. Their storefronts serve as delivery locations, and they take cash payments from unbanked consumers who cannot pay online.

Copia Global: A different business model from Amazon

Unlike Amazon, which is experiencing rising tension with its warehouse employees, Copia Global provides a route to advancement for its agents. In addition to the extra cash generated by selling Copia Global items, foot traffic in their stores improves by 50%. Turner stated that Agents’ earnings increased by nearly one-third.

“That’s enough for some of them to move from poverty to the middle-class,” she said.

Because 77% of Copia Global Agents are women, their increased income will have a multiplier effect on the community. According to research, women invest a greater percentage of their income in their families and communities.

Despite the fact that Copia Global intentionally designs for its context rather than importing business models, there is an acknowledgement that America’s tech behemoths have a lot to teach. Jason Murray, a former Amazon executive, joined Copia Global’s board of directors in March.

During his nearly 20 years in the firm, he witnessed Amazon’s meteoric rise and spearheaded significant programmes such as “Fulfil with Amazon.” Murray stated, “We always relearn this notion that price, selection, and convenience is what drives retail for all consumers.” His expertise will help Copia Global to unlock the next phase of growth.

Murray admits that there were services available in the United States that were important to Amazon’s success but that they had yet to completely penetrate the East African market.

Turner stated that a large part of Amazon’s narrative is not only an e-commerce story, but also a fintech one since e-commerce and fintech will go hand in hand in the coming months and years.

Copia Global will focus on adding financial services on top of their e-commerce platform to boost their clients’ purchasing power and drive corporate growth.