Kenyan fashionistas to sell goods on eBay

Kenyans will now be able to sell their goods directly to the United States on eBay through a partnership with MallforAfrica.com.

Select vendors from Kenya are among those from six African countries available on eBay’s US shopping site in the collaboration that starts in style, with opening merchandise categories of fashion, art, jewelry, and clothing, according to techcrunch.com.

For the new programme, MallforAfrica selects the sellers and handles payments on its proprietary platform. DHL is the shipping partner. Online shoppers can browse the entire collection on eBay’s Mall for Africa Store.

The new online channel expands an existing relationship between the two e-commerce companies. In  2016, they launched the eBay Powered by MallforAfrica platform allowing US vendors to sell in Africa.

“A year ago our focus was about how we could work with a partner to overcome shipping, payment, and trade barriers to offer eBay’s selection in Africa,” Sylvie de Wever, eBay’s General Manager of Latin America and US exports, told TechCrunch.

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“If you think about our purpose, which is connecting millions of buyers and sellers around the world and creating economic opportunity, it makes sense to open up the American market to sellers in Africa,” she said.

To start, the programme also taps goods from merchants in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Burundi, according to de Wever. “We’ll be adding more sellers and more countries,” she said.

On the selection of African vendors: “The main criteria are that the products be made in Africa and quality―making sure it’s a quality product that we can ship within the categories selected,” said MallforAfrica CEO Chris Folayan.