Experts predict a growth rate three times faster for social commerce, fueled by a generation of consumers who have traded brick-and-mortar stores for the dynamic world of social media.

This meteoric rise promises to be a game-changer, not just for the way we shop, but for the entire online landscape.

Today’s hyper-connected world means social media platforms are no longer just for sharing selfies and vacation pics.

They have morphed into vibrant virtual marketplaces teeming with recommendations, reviews, and real-time interactions.

Social commerce capitalizes on this, transforming the passive act of scrolling into an interactive discovery journey.

Gone are the days of navigating through endless product listings and deciphering cryptic descriptions.

Social commerce leverages the power of user-generated content – think authentic product reviews, influencer endorsements, and real-life customer testimonials.

This fosters a sense of trust and community, allowing consumers to make informed decisions based on genuine experiences, not just glossy marketing materials.

Businesses and individuals are now leveraging the interactive nature of these platforms to engage in real-time conversations, answer questions, and address concerns.

This level of personalized interaction builds brand loyalty and fosters a sense of community around shared interests and values.

Evidently, social commerce is making traditional ecommerce resemble a solitary shopping spree through a sterile, brightly lit mall. Social commerce caters perfectly to this evolved shopper who is armed with smartphones, hungry for engagement, and eager to be part of something bigger.

This seismic shift demands a strategic response from platforms and traditional e-commerce founders.  They will need to go beyond basic banner ads and delve into the world of interactive experiences and community building.

With tales of triumph and tragedy intertwining in the traditional ecommerce scene in Nigeria and Africa at large, several platforms have reached unprecedented heights before hitting rock bottom. While several analyses failed to pinpoint the true crux of the matter, a simple underlying explanation may be that social commerce is eating traditional e-commerce’s share of the pie.

In a developing story, Pandascrow is looking to discontinue its ecommerce platform, Storefront. The platform intends to primarily facilitate the Escrow Market and support other businesses already thriving in the eCommerce market without directly competing with it.

Speaking with Precious Tom the founder and CEO of Pandascrow, it was gathered that the economy, and the fact that ecommerce has almost been replaced by social commerce, has not been favourable to e-commerce stores.

“After thinking and deliberating with management, it is clear that in addition to an unfavourable economy, the fact that eCommerce has almost been replaced by social commerce, the market in Nigeria is not favourable to another eCommerce Store.”

“We wish to primarily facilitate the Escrow Market and support other businesses already thriving in the eCommerce market without directly competing with it. Our unique-line sub-feature, PayMe will continue to support all those that were previously selling on our storefront,” said Tom, the founder of Pandascrow.

Revealing more insights, the founder revealed that in-depth research has revealed some fascinating patterns in how customers search for products across different platforms:

• Google – If they want to learn about the product
• Instagram – If they want to purchase the product
• Jumia – If they want to find the price of the product

Social commerce is on the rise, projected to reach a staggering $1.2 trillion by 2025. This explosive growth is not some passing fad; it is driven by the powerful force: the consumers. These customers are mainly Millennials and Gen Z.

These generations, account for a whopping 62% of the social commerce boom, and they practically live on social media.

This social media migration presents a golden opportunity for savvy businesses. Founders who recognize the power of social commerce and adapt their strategies will be the ones riding this retail rocket to success.  The days of cold, impersonal marketing are over. It’s time to embrace the interactive, community-driven world of social commerce.

The oversubscribed equity funding round was led by San Francisco-based Base10 Partners (investors in Nubank, Plaid, and Brex), with participation from Helios Digital Ventures, Shopify, Partech, and Khosla Ventures.

Despite the growth in digital payments across Africa, most businesses still only have access to generic point-of-sale machines to support the collection of payments. These machines also typically work in isolation from the rest of the business operations, leading to a variety of inefficiencies in their business processes.

With this new funding, Nomba will deliver payment solutions that have been designed for the specific services that businesses provide, enabling them to plug gaps in their payment processes, operate more efficiently and deliver excellent customer experiences.

For example, restaurants will be able to access menus, manage inventory, receive payments, and perform other business functions all from the same hardware. For transport and logistics companies, Nomba’s solutions will enable them to directly connect their transactions to payments, creating a more seamless experience that increases sales and profitability.

Starting in Nigeria, Nomba will also deliver a range of business tools, including invoicing and order management solutions to improve efficiency and reduce cost of operations for businesses across the continent.

Since launching in 2016 as “Kudi.ai”, a chatbot integration that responds to financial requests on social apps, Nomba has evolved over the years into a profitable, omnichannel payment service provider.

The company supports more than 300,000 businesses with a wide range of payment solutions, as well as management and banking tools that enable better business processes and support business owners to be better at doing business.

The company processes $1 billion in monthly transactions, which represents a market-leading gross transaction value (GTV) for a payment service provider in Africa.

Before this funding round, Nomba had only previously raised $5 million in funding, leveraging those funds to successfully grow the business and efficiently deliver solutions that have positively impacted hundreds of thousands of businesses across Nigeria.

This new capital will enable the company to deliver more solutions for businesses in Nigeria, across Africa ,and in other markets, as the opportunities may emerge.

According to Yinka Adewale, CEO and co-founder of Nomba, “We see payment as a business model, not just a product and we want to make it easier for businesses to take advantage of all that is possible in their payment processes to support their continued growth and success.

We have a long list of products we have been working on and the funds we have raised as well as the investors that have backed us gives us a lot of confidence about what can be achieved with more effective payment solutions in the hands of business owners.”

Luci Fonseca, Partner at Base10 said, “Nomba’s track record of innovation and capital efficiency makes it one of the most exciting startups in Africa. We are thrilled to be supporting them to deliver their game-changing solutions to power growth and continued success for businesses in Nigeria and beyond.”