Alibaba Launches First Showroom in Addis Ababa

Thanks to the local company Echelon Group, the famous Chinese retailer Alibaba has opened its first showroom in Ethiopia, located in the capital city Addis Ababa. The showroom located at the Getu Commercial Building in the ever-busy Bole District, was unveiled yesterday featuring different range of products such as visual and audio gizmos, fabric materials, and office supplies among others.

This also compliments quite a number of customers in the ethiopia region by establishing trust in a practical means of online purchases, since it also aims at demonstrating physical use of its range of products. Customers can browse selection of goods such as from AliExpress, which is an online shopping website that offers retail services through e-commerce.

At the same time the doors were opened there were present Geoffrey Jiang – the Director for Africa Operations at Alibaba; Chinese diplomats; and prominent Ethiopian players in the sphere of e-commerce, which serves as a clear indicator that Alibaba intends to invest heavily in the Ethiopian market.

Echelon Groups and How They are Changing the Current Trend of E-Commerce in Ethiopia

Michael Mamo, the General Manager of Echelon Groups, believes that the entry of Alibaba will turn around the e-commerce landscape in Ethiopia. Mamo whose Ethio-Canadian entrepreneurship spans across BPO, logistics, agriculture and manufacturing sees this cooperation as a building block in the retail digital age in Ethiopia.

and demand for services like that which Alibaba offers among the Ethiopian population. “We have facilitated the use of Birr when transacting with Alibaba products,” pointed out Mamo, also deepening the understanding of the need to cater for the local currency for Ethiopian online shoppers. Additionally, he has worked with more than forty importers based in Ethiopia, for easier sourcing of products. The products, considering that there is a processing period for customs, are expected to be delivered in 15 days with customs procedure all being done by Echelon to avoid any delays.

AliExpress Makes New Strides Towards Providing Services to Ethiopian Consumers

Geoffrey Jiang, the Director of African Operations for Alibaba, mentioned that it is the payment in the local currency that has enabled services for Ethiopian customers. He said that not being able to transact in local currency was a serious drawback for Ethiopian users and announced that AliExpress will start accepting payments in Birr from November.

“It is essential to see samples beforehand as this instills trust in customers who we are planning to establish more showrooms across Ethiopia,” Jiang said. He further emphasized that the saturation of that market will be determined by the functioning of this first showroom.

Further expansion strategies saw Alibaba work with MKTY IT Services Plc in which bringing up another showroom in Welo Sefer, Addis Ababa is included.

Consumer Response and Happiness Anticipated from the Arrival of Alibaba

The entry of Alibaba seems to have excited the Ethiopian consumers who want to be able to purchase cheap already out imported goods. Kidus Yohannes, an Addis Ababa-based software engineer, managed to buy products such as LED light strips and a water carrier at very low rates compared to local sellers. Kidu, who had come on a first-time free delivery offer, only spent 50 Birr to pick his item from Ethiopost, an amount that is nowhere close to what one would use in the local market.

“It’s really good, and inexpensive compared to what you can get from the native sellers,” Kidus added encouraging the already high interest and expectation.