How Martech Is Driving E-commerce Growth In Africa: Top Tools & Strategies for Customer Acquisition In 2025

By Edidiong Jennifer Roberts

Have you ever wished you could read your customers’ minds?

If you’re running an e-commerce brand or part of a startup sales team in Africa, chances are you have especially when you’ve tried everything and still struggle to attract or retain the right customers.

Customer acquisition is no longer as straightforward as it used to be. Consumers are evolving, markets are getting crowded, and attention spans are shorter than ever. With over 61% of marketers globally saying it’s their biggest challenge, many teams are trying to solve it.

In Africa’s growing e-commerce space, which is expected to hit $75 billion by 2025, this pressure is even greater. Sales teams are dealing with ad fatigue, low conversion rates, and the constant need to keep up with changing buyer habits.

This is where Marketing Technology (aka Martech) comes in as a game changer. Martech refers to tools and systems that make it easier to reach, engage, convert, and keep customers.

In this article, we’ll explore how Martech can help your brand attract, engage, and convert more customers in 2025 and why it’s becoming a must-have for e-commerce growth in Africa.

The Real Customer Acquisition Struggles African E-commerce Brands Face

Customer acquisition in Africa’s e-commerce sector is both costly and complex, with brands facing a range of challenges. Let’s dive into the key struggles you’re likely dealing with:

1. High Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC)

Many African e-commerce brands now spend $29 to $35 to acquire just one customer. Rising ad costs, low trust levels, and high competition make it harder for lesser-known brands to convert first-time buyers.

The result? Bloated acquisition costs, low ROAS (Return on Ad Spend), and thinner profit margins with little return to show for it.

2. Lack of Personalization Across the Customer Journey.

Many African e-commerce brands lack the tools or systems to personalize the customer journey. This leads to generic emails, irrelevant product suggestions, and checkout flows that overlook past behavior. When experiences feel impersonal, customers lose interest and drop off, often just before converting.

3. Fragmented Customer Data

If you can’t see the full picture of your customer’s journey, it becomes incredibly hard to serve them well. A common challenge across African e-commerce businesses is disjointed data. You have bits of information scattered across social media, websites, etc.

Without a centralized system or a clean customer profile, you waste time and budget trying to guess what your customer wants, rather than using real insights to make informed decisions.

4. Manual Processes That Kill Growth

A lot of sales teams in e-commerce still rely heavily on spreadsheets, manual outreach, or checking multiple platforms to complete a single task.  These manual processes not only slow down your sales team but also limit the ability to scale and serve customers efficiently. Ultimately, this leads to a low conversion rate and a dip in revenue.

5. Poor Follow-Up and Lead Nurturing

Capturing a lead is just the first step. What happens after determines if that lead turns into revenue. In B2B e-commerce, where decisions take longer, consistent follow-up is key. Yet most teams still lack the systems to keep leads warm—no automated nurturing, no timely reminders, no structured outreach. Without this, conversations stall, interest fades, and valuable opportunities slip away.

These challenges can feel overwhelming for any e-commerce brand owner. However, integrating Martech into your customer acquisition strategy can simplify the process, helping you attract and convert customers more effectively.

How Martech Solves These Pain Points (Across the Customer Journey)

Now, let’s look at how Martech can support your marketing team at each stage of the customer journey:

1. Attract

 Gone are the days of struggling to reach your audience with generic ads that don’t convert.

Martech helps you reach the right people faster. Instead of guessing who to target, tools like SEO platforms, content planning software, and automated ad systems allow you to attract high-intent customers across channels without overspending.

2. Engage

When people land on your website or page, what happens next matters. They’ll bounce if they don’t find helpful answers or quick responses. 

Martech tools like chatbots, WhatsApp automation, and behavior-triggered emails make it easier to respond in real-time, chat with customers, answer questions, and follow up across platforms without needing to be online 24/7.

3. Convert

Once someone shows interest, Martech helps you turn that interest into action.

Instead of manually chasing leads or setting reminders, tools like CRM systems and landing page builders help you automate your follow-up process. You can retarget warm leads, personalize offers, and guide them to check out.

4. Retain

Keeping customers coming back is just as important as getting them in the first place. About 60% of African businesses struggle to keep their customers due to poor follow-up and lack of personalized engagement.

Martech helps you build stronger relationships through email marketing tools, customer segmentation, and personalized follow-ups tailored to each customer’s behavior, helping you stay top of mind and increase repeat purchases, even on a lean team.

Now that you know how Martech tools support your customer acquisition journey, let’s explore some practical tools you can use to boost sales and grow faster as an African business owner.

5 Must-Have Martech Tools to Scale Customer Acquisition in 2025

As an e-commerce or startup marketer targeting the consumer market in Africa, you want a non-complex martech tool stack you can use easily. Here are 5 stress-free martech tools to improve your customer acquisition in 2025:

1. Yournotify 

If you’re looking for a straightforward way to automate customer communication, Yournotify is a great option. It offers an easy-to-use platform for sending bulk SMS and emails. This makes it ideal for reaching your audience across different channels without the complexity of more advanced tools.

Startups like Vpay have successfully used Yournotify to streamline their SMS and email campaigns, enhancing engagement and driving growth. With pricing plans starting at ₦20,000, it’s a cost-effective solution for both small and large e-commerce brands aiming to improve their customer acquisition strategies.

2. Hubspot 

HubSpot CRM helps you serve your customers better and stay organized as you grow. It helps you manage your sales pipeline, automate follow-ups, and keep track of every customer interaction, all in one place. HubSpot is trusted by global brands like Trello and Reddit, yet simple enough for small business owners.

In South Africa alone, over 1,200 businesses use HubSpot, making it one of the most adopted CRMs in the region. It’s free tier gives you a lot to start with, and you can upgrade as you scale, so you’re only paying for what you really need.

3. Revwit 

Revwit is a sales CRM built specifically for African businesses that want to close more deals without the hassle of complex software. It helps you capture leads automatically, sync contacts in real-time, and manage your pipeline with clarity. You can send personalised emails at scale and never miss a follow-up. As Emeka Mba-Kalu, CEO of Sendstack, puts it: “Revwit is the simplest sales software we’ve used. No consultants, no complex setup, just plug and sell!”

Over 200 African startups already use Revwit to streamline their B2B sales. It’s available in local currencies and has payment plans for each type of business. Whether you’re a startup or a growing team, Revwit helps you stay organised, automate outreach, and close deals faster.

4. Adroll

AdRoll is an ad retargeting tool that helps you attract the right customers by running personalized ad campaigns across social media, email, and the web. It’s beneficial for re-engaging visitors who didn’t take action on your website.

With dynamic ads driving 14% higher click-through rates, it’s a smart, automated way to follow up with potential customers. With plans starting at $36/month, it’s a great choice for scaling your reach and maximizing your ad spend for your e-commerce brand.

5. Bumpa 

Bumpa helps you manage everything from customer engagement to sales records with just a few clicks. Whether you’re handling orders, tracking inventory, or keeping customer details organized, Bumpa makes it all easy and accessible, especially for e-commerce brands on the go.

With Bumpa, you can run your business more efficiently, keep your customers happy, and focus on scaling without the stress of juggling multiple systems. With pricing starting from 15,000 naira quarterly, it’s an affordable, all-in-one solution to keep your operations on track.

Move Faster Than Your Competitors With MarTech

If you’ve made it this far, one thing should be clear: the old ways of acquiring customers aren’t enough anymore.

Today’s customers expect more, and the cost of reaching them keeps rising.

But there’s a smarter way forward.

Martech tools offer practical solutions to the biggest challenges: rising CAC, poor follow-up, and scattered data. You don’t need a large team or complex systems to see results. With the right tools, you can work faster, engage better, and grow sustainably.

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