{"id":1157,"date":"2015-06-10T12:00:29","date_gmt":"2015-06-10T11:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/?p=1157"},"modified":"2016-10-27T15:30:42","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T14:30:42","slug":"western-retailers-entering-sub-saharan-african-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/2015\/06\/10\/western-retailers-entering-sub-saharan-african-markets\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Retailers Entering sub-Saharan African Markets"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love hanging around markets \u2013 although I try not to buy randomly: I always go with my shopping list.<\/strong> When you are in a new country, this is a great way to get a flavor for what life is like for local people. In Kenya, you get a variety of flavors from dusty farmers\u2019 markets to upscale supermarket chains owned by locals. And this reflects the diversity of Kenya\u2019s population.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Traditional<\/a>
Traditional market in Nairobi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The news is that international retail chains are entering the country.<\/strong> I read last week in the Financial Times<\/em> <\/a>that Walmart just opened its first store<\/strong>. Digging a bit, I learned that Carrefour has plans to open<\/a> in September<\/strong>. I understand these are their first inroads in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). South-African chain Shoprite<\/a> operates quite successfully in 15 sub-Saharan African countries. It will be interesting to see how Western chains do.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The middle class is growing in SSA<\/a><\/strong>. Consumer spending for the whole of Africa is projected at USD 2.2 trillion in 2030, up from USD 680 billion in 2008 (according to the African Economic Outlook 2015<\/a>). Clearly, this presents a great business opportunity for retail chains \u2013 one that is rife with challenge.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Internationalizing in SSA is not an easy venture.<\/strong> I wrote last week about the do\u2019s and<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Local<\/a>
Local chain Nakumatt supermarket<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

don\u2019ts of internationalizing<\/a> there. When it comes to distribution, local adaptation is important. On the one hand, it takes understanding consumer preferences. The middle class is aspirational. But still, SSA consumers have a strong preference for products<\/a> they are familiar with or that are recommended by someone they trust.<\/strong>\u00a0Then there are the cultural traits that translate into demand for products such as wigs <\/a>for women, who love to change their hairstyles!<\/p>\n

On the other hand, local adaptation in retail requires\u00a0<\/strong>managing the supply change.<\/strong> This can be challenging: from identifying and dealing with suppliers<\/a> in appropriate ways to managing the logistics in environments with deficient infrastructure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Walmart\u2019s international expansion efforts are well known for the time it took them to adapt to each new country.<\/strong> Interestingly, according to the Financial Times<\/em>, one difficulty they faced when opening their Kenyan store was that they had to import the trademark bright magenta ink they use in d\u00e9cor because nobody in the country could produce it. But at least, they\u2019re entering Kenya through Massmart<\/a>, a South-African chain that knows the peculiarities of SSA.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Any experiences with retailing in SSA?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love hanging around markets \u2013 although I try not to buy randomly: I always go with my shopping list. When you are in a new country, this is a great way to get a flavor for what life is like for local people. In Kenya, you get a variety of flavors from dusty farmers\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1654,"featured_media":1158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85385,77626],"tags":[38854,100420,698,80751,951,5461,1211,100417,24741],"class_list":["post-1157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-doing-business-in-africa","category-entrepreneurship-in-africa","tag-carrefour","tag-demand-products","tag-financial-times","tag-internacionalization","tag-kenya","tag-middle-class","tag-retail","tag-supermarkets","tag-walmart","megacategoria-mc-africa"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1654"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1157"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1167,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157\/revisions\/1167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}