en.Wedoany.com Reported - Pan-African fintech company Payaza has launched the Shopaza e-commerce platform, aimed at helping small African businesses overcome growth barriers encountered when operating on social media platforms.

The African e-commerce market generated $27.97 billion in revenue in 2020, grew to $55 billion by 2024, and is projected to reach $112.73 billion by 2029. However, most local e-commerce operators rely on social media platforms to sell and manage their businesses, which brings numerous challenges. Merchants lack accurate data on business operations, such as who purchased items, which products sell best, and when customers are most active. Fragmented purchase cycles across multiple platforms also lead to poor inventory management.

This issue was a central focus at the Shopaza launch event held in Lagos on June 18, 2026. Shopaza has officially launched in 23 countries across Africa, North America, and Europe. The platform operates on Payaza's payment infrastructure, which is one of its main advantages over dedicated e-commerce platforms that rely on third-party payment systems. Thanks to integration with Payaza, merchants can enjoy instant settlement.

Kehinde Omotosho, Engineering Lead at Payaza Africa, noted in his keynote speech that the product features integrated internal payment infrastructure, supporting multiple currencies and instant settlement. Merchants can immediately recover funds after selling goods and restock their stores. The most anticipated aspect of the product launch was the unveiling of the AI store-building tool. Omotosho described it as native AI, where unlike traditional digital storefronts requiring manual inventory setup, the AI handles most of the work when using Shopaza. Merchants only need to upload product images, and the AI sets the most competitive prices while filling in necessary information such as size, color variants, and other attributes.

Esther Affia, Product Manager at Payaza, stated that Shopaza offers merchants the flexibility to customize their storefronts. Many digital storefronts lack customization features, leading to uniform store appearances, whereas Shopaza allows stores to have their own identity throughout the sales cycle and provides multiple templates for pre-orders, digital products, and physical goods. As Shopaza enters the African e-commerce market, its differentiating factor lies in ease of doing business, particularly the ability for merchants to set up stores and make sales. The platform needs to replicate the simplicity of social media selling, ensuring ease of use for both merchants and customers.

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