WordCamp Chicago. WordPress in Africa: Empowering Growth
A 10-15 minute overview of the potential for market growth in Africa, driven by internet infrastructure, eCommerce and WordPress. Also covers the usage of WooCommerce in Africa and some ideas for expanding the WooCommerce market in Africa.
opportunity and challenges Lessons learned in growing a WordPress business: A world of opportunity and challenges Lessons learned in growing a WordPress business: A world of opportunity and challenges WordPress in Empowering Growth By @joelbronkowski
town called Moorpark -Entrepreneur &Passionate about social justice and helping others -Gadget geek and former website hack -Worked in sales and in the oil industry while studying in the US before heading off to South Africa at age 23 (7 years ago)
50% in the next 10 years Africa’s smart phone penetration is just 2-5 percent. This translates into 300 million new smartphones being sold in Africa in the decade ahead. Mobile Phones
official themes 9 x official extensions Sept 2011 Oct 2011 14,000 downloads 10 x official themes 20 x official extensions WooCommerce 1.4 45,000 downloads 16 x official themes 52 x official extensions Jan 2012 310,000 downloads 24 x official themes 145 x official extensions 30+ 3rd party themes 30+ 3rd party extensions Major Revenue Increases Sept 2012 June 2013 WooCommerce 2.0 1,000,000 downloads Dec 2013 WooCommerce 2.0 2,000,000 downloads Today WooCommerce 2.1 3,300,000+ downloads
has enabled us to scale at a pace that's comfortable for us. It allows us to develop custom plugin to suit our specific needs, and it does not constrain us when it comes to design and access to theme files. A lot of new companies are beginning to realize the simplicity of the platform, and its gaining a lot of traction with word of mouth. Wordpress developers are also now in high-demand.” “We need more localized payment gateways and better checkout customization” “eCommerce is the next big thing in Nigeria and we are now playing our part in that space” -Olaoluwa Samuel-Biyi
and most especially the easy to use plug-ins for task modifications "It have helped me alot in term of bringing my business ideas live on web” “if you need to build a stable online market using WordPress, WooCommerce is the answer." "About 90% of Website in Nigeria are built using WordPress even some of our Government official websites are built using WordPress” "i personally developed my website because i am a young software engineer . i am currently studying software Engineering in school . The major Challenge is Payment processing. Currently now, the only shipping courier is DHL. And they charge a lots of cash for shipping which limit the use of commerce. I really wanna thank WooCommerce team.”
woocommerce developers and team across the world. We get prompt answers to chanllenges and a variety of free extensions to choose from.” ! Of course there is a big opportunity for eCommerce in Nigeria. The country with a growing population of over 150 million has experienced over 80% raise in internet use in the past 5 years. People are becoming more mobile and internet savvy and this increases the growth of eCommerce. Oveem.com.ng was developed in house by the business founder and a friend. We designed a child theme of one of the free woo themes we purchased from the woo theme site.Online payment is the major challenge with eCommerce in my country. Most people are skeptical to pay online due to internet scams, but customers are slowly adopting the online payment culture.” -Josiah Uma Nigeria
E P O T E N T I A L T O T R A N S F O R M T H E E C O M M E R C E L A N D S C A P E I N A F R I C A . H E L P P E O P L E , H E L P B U S I N E S S E S A N D C R E AT E O P P O R T U N I T Y