en.Wedoany.com Reported - Payaza Africa officially launched its cloud-based e-commerce platform, ShopAza, in Lagos, Nigeria, on June 18, 2026. The platform is designed to help small and medium-sized merchants quickly build branded online stores, track inventory, and integrate payment collection, replacing the cumbersome model of piecing together multiple tools to complete online sales.
Many small businesses in Nigeria still rely on WhatsApp Business image catalogs and Instagram direct messages to take orders, lacking a true digital storefront. This leads to a cumbersome checkout process and requires customers to repeatedly inquire about prices. According to a market intelligence report, the transaction volume conducted through unofficial websites such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook is expected to reach $33 billion in 2026, with an annual growth rate of approximately 13%. Businesses on these informal platforms face growth bottlenecks such as manual order tracking, payment disputes, and difficulties in customer data management.
Existing solutions in the market, such as Paystack Commerce, Flutterwave Store, Interswitch Quickteller Storefront, and specialized tools like Bumpa, Sellevo, and Selar, have attempted to address these issues. However, many merchants report that current options still fall short in terms of store brand customization, inventory management, and customer retention tools.
Payaza is a pan-African payment infrastructure company operating in 21 countries, serving traditional merchants and diaspora businesses. ShopAza is not a standalone product but is situated within Payaza's broader ecosystem, alongside ChatPay, Payaza Give, EventPorte, and Payaza Branches. The company may integrate chat-based sales, event ticketing, and storefronts into an interconnected merchant experience.
On its launch day, ShopAza will be available in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, as well as markets in North America and Europe, supporting multi-business environments and multi-currency transactions. Multi-currency support helps African merchants reach overseas diaspora customers, and if it can facilitate cross-border payments more easily than existing alternatives, it will constitute a differentiated competitive advantage.
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