Market Data

African Trade Observatory (ATO)
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Overview

Spanning 54 countries, supporting a market of over one billion people, and contributing over $3 trillion to global GDP, the AfCFTA presents a game-changing opportunity to create a unified continental market and increase regional integration. 

To capitalize on emerging opportunities in Africa, businesses require prompt and relevant market information. To that end, the ATO dashboard was launched in July 2019 as an operational tool of the AfCFTA.  

The ATO, led by the African Union (AU) and implemented by the International Trade Centre (ITC), specifically through its Trade and Market Intelligence (TMI) section, has a duration until 28 February 2026. Through reliable and timely data, it offers African businesses trade intelligence, including trends, opportunities, and market access conditions. Additionally, ATO enables government officials and policymakers to track the AfCFTA implementation process and assess its impact on their economies.

Screenshot of the African Trade Monitor website

The ATO dashboard comprises three specialized modules: 

Compare: African entrepreneurs can compare markets for their products to identify promising opportunities.
Explore: Businesses can dig deeper to find detailed trade and market access information for an identified opportunity. 
Monitor: African policymakers can track the state of intra-African integration over time. 

 

Key features

  • Comprehensive trade data on international markets and market access conditions. 

  • Interactive visualizations such as graphs and charts to easily interpret information. 

  • Customized dashboards to suit your needs and research. 

ITC tools (for relations)
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The African Trade Observatory (ATO) is one of five operational instruments of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The ATO provides reliable and up-to-date data for businesses and policymakers to make informed decisions and to monitor the agreement’s impact.

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Contact
First name
Mondher
Last name
Mimouni
Email
ato@intracen.org
LDC Trade Tracker
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Overview

The LDC Trade Tracker allows users to monitor the trade of least developed countries (LDCs) through thematic reports and interactive indicators. Explore recent trends and patterns in the trade of LDCs using the LDC Trade Tracker indicators of exports, imports, concentration and more. Download the LDC Trade Report 2023 and explore its key messages. 

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ITC tools (for relations)
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The LDC Trade Tracker allows users to monitor the trade of least developed countries through thematic reports and interactive indicators. 

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Email
marketanalysis@intracen.org
Africa Marketplace Explorer
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Overview

The Africa Marketplace Explorer addresses the lack of comprehensive information about online marketplaces in more than 50 African countries. 

This free dashboard explores:

  • trends in digital marketplace usage from 2019 to 2022 

  • relative adoption of marketplaces 

  • country-by-country benchmarking 

The tool covers visitor traffic and the main characteristics of more than 630 African marketplaces. 

This comprehensive set of data, developed by the ITC ecomConnect team together with the Centre for Market Insights of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, contributes important insights on how to develop e-commerce in Africa. 

The accompanying report, Business and policy insights: Mapping e-Marketplaces in Africa, builds on this data to explain how policymakers and small businesses can use it. 

The dashboard is also available for Latin America and the Caribbean

 


Africa’s 631 online marketplaces recorded 2.17 billion visits in 2019.
That’s just 8% of the traffic on Amazon.
Graphic of woman carrying delivery boxes
 
10 countries – including South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Algeria – are responsible for 94% of all online business in Africa.
 
Consumer traffic on online marketplaces in Africa slipped by 5% from 2017 to 2019. 

Dashboard

Related publications

ITC tools (for relations)
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ITC’s online dashboard allows analysis of more than 630 retail marketplaces across 50 African countries.

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ITC ecomConnect
Email
ecomconnect@intracen.org
Latin America and the Caribbean Marketplace Explorer
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Overview

The Latin America and the Caribbean Marketplace Explorer is the first tool to analyse the sale of goods on retail e-commerce marketplaces. This free dashboard explores trends in usage from 2019 to 2022, adoption of marketplaces across 33 countries, and country-by-country benchmarking. The tool covers visitor traffic and other main characteristics of almost 900 marketplaces and 2,900 marketplace websites. 

The COVID-19 pandemic altered shopping habits and business models, especially for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises across the region. E-commerce showed unprecedented growth as businesses and consumers turned to digital channels.  

However, a lack of timely data to monitor trends in both domestic and international e-commerce marketplaces may hinder the ability of governments and businesses to formulate appropriate strategies to promote the digital economy and trade. 

This innovative dashboard was developed by the ecomConnect team at the International Trade Centre (ITC), the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC), and the Centre for Market Insights of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. The Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) also supported the development.

This study follows previous efforts by ITC to map online marketplace activity in Africa with the first version of the Africa Marketplace Explorer launched in 2020. 

This publication analyses the Latin America and Caribbean marketplace landscape. This document describes the main characteristics of online platforms in the region, their distribution across countries, and traffic evolution from 2019 to 2021. This data is combined with country-level indicators to study structural determinants of marketplace activity. 

Key indicators by country and region

Traffic (trend) analysis

Characteristics of individual marketplaces

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ITC and ECLAC's online dashboard allows a region-wide analysis of almost 900 goods-oriented marketplaces across 33 countries.  

Region (for relations)
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Contact
Title
ITC ecomConnect
Email
ecomconnect@intracen.org