Saleh, a 25-year-old graduate from Nairobi, desperately needed a new smartphone. He explored every option to get the best value. He came across a well-known African e-commerce brand offering a “Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) plan, requiring a 20% upfront payment and flexible monthly instalments. The deal seemed enticing. Yet, Saleh hesitated because he did not want to owe anyone, no matter how little. He eventually saved for months and bought the same phone in full.
Saleh’s experience reveals a prevailing issue. There is a significant mismatch between the pricing models businesses employ and the actual purchasing behaviour of their target customers in Africa. For instance, the BNPL model, imported mainly from Western markets where pricing is often built on cost-plus and margin calculations, frequently misfires. African markets, however, operate under distinct conditions, characterised by largely informal economies, a strong negotiation culture, and aspiration-driven consumers. Businesses too often develop pricing models that are detached from these contextual realities.
In the relentless quest for business survival amidst economic turbulence, companies constantly face the temptation to base pricing decisions primarily on economic assumptions about the target customer, without patiently collecting insights into crucial non-economic parameters. The consequence of insufficient consumer insight is paradoxical: some businesses are more price-sensitive than their supposedly price-sensitive customers. They offer discount programs that are fundamentally misaligned with actual shopper needs.
The time has come for businesses on the continent to evolve from pricing for survival to adopting insight-based pricing – a model deeply aligned with Africa’s peculiar buyer landscape.
Inspired by the urgency of this task, the authors of this article embarked on an extensive insights journey to uncover the often-overlooked aspects of buyer price behaviour that are essential for crafting price models fit for Africa. Our research tools included a comprehensive customer survey of African shoppers, a focused group discussion with over 10 wholesalers, and in-depth interviews with more than 65 retailers. The findings were truly illuminating. African buyers, as our research reveals, frequently defy conventional logic when it comes to price behaviour. Businesses must grasp these nuances to bridge the gap between their pricing models and the customers they aim to serve.
If Saleh’s story resonates with you, here are four overlooked considerations about buyer pricing behaviour to integrate into your insight-based pricing model:
- Buyer’s Non-Economic Value Considerations: Beyond Affordability
Affordability is not always the primary determinant of customer reaction to prices and pricing changes. Our survey revealed a striking counterpoint to the prevailing assumption of high price sensitivity:
- Over 61% of respondents have never used Buy Now Pay Later, with an additional 25% having considered it but ultimately not used it. Only about 13% have utilised BNPL. This underscores a persistent and strong cultural mindset around debt-aversion and immediate ownership across African countries like Kenya and Nigeria.
- On a scale of 1 to 10 for price sensitivity, survey respondents scored a median of 7. While affordability was indeed the most essential purchase driver for 53% of respondents, the aspirational value of the brand ranked a close second, at 45%. Product reliability and durability ranked third (35%), followed by referral value, with brand image ranking last (5%).
- Perhaps most surprisingly, 80.9% of respondents abandoned cheaper alternatives and returned to pricier originals based on factors beyond mere affordability. Despite claiming to be price-sensitive, many consumers choose premium brands to match their aspirational horizon. For example, price-sensitive respondents bought brands like Gucci, YSL, iPhone, and Adidas to feel “classy.” One explained, “I bought it regardless of the price because of its fit with who I aspire to become.”
To optimise your pricing model, think beyond your buyer’s ability to afford your brand. Consider the following questions that African buyers often implicitly ask:
- Can I feel significant or empowered by buying this brand?
- Will this brand perform consistently, wherever I go, and for as long as possible?
- Do my friends and family recommend it?
Building your model around these additional, non-economic considerations can make all the difference.
- Buyers’ Perception of Price Control: The Haggling Imperative
African shoppers’ strong desire to control pricing situations is a grossly overlooked aspect of price modelling. On average, shoppers in our sample haggle once every week.
Our research indicates that shoppers in Africa feel most in control of price in open markets (57.4%), followed by local kiosks and supermarkets (20.9%), e-commerce (17.6%), and social commerce platforms like WhatsApp (4.4%). Africans possess a deep-rooted negotiation culture, which is vividly expressed in their largely informal markets. Yet, shoppers’ feelings about price control are conspicuously absent from many existing price models. The perception that e-commerce and social commerce platforms do not allow price negotiation may partly explain why customers often trust them less than traditional open market outlets. Incorporating the haggling appetite of the target customer is a must-have in pricing models across brands and industries within the continent.
- Buyers’ Perceived Position in Your Price Segment: Challenging Assumptions
Brands that price differently by income segments (e.g., premium, mainstream, value pricing) tend to assume that low-end customers are inherently more price-sensitive than high-end customers. Our study results, however, reveal the opposite.
The upper-middle-income bracket (earning $196 – $326 per month) was the most price-sensitive, while lower-income brackets (less than $45 per month) were surprisingly less price-sensitive. The findings showed that bottom-of-the-pyramid customers prioritise buying from family, friends, or trusted affiliates more than securing the best bargain. In contrast, middle-income customers often operate with more fragile budgets and greater anxiety about meeting multiple financial obligations. If you are building a pricing model for a premium brand, do not simply assume customers will be insensitive to price; instead, understand what “sensitivity” truly means to a premium customer in the African context.
- Buyer’s Price Context: Time, Region, and Type Matter
Brands must deeply understand the specific context for which they are pricing. Our study revealed significant pricing behaviour differences based on region, buyer type, and time.
- Regional Nuances: South Eastern shoppers emerged as the most aspirational buyers in Nigeria, yet they are simultaneously extremely price-sensitive regarding electronic brands. South West customers exhibit the highest price negotiation rate and are the strongest sceptics about cheap substitutes. Northern customers, conversely, are more relaxed about prices, primarily because they place greater importance on trusting the purchase location.
- Buyer Type: The study also found that business-to-business (B2B) customers record higher price sensitivity than business-to-customer (B2C) buyers.
- Temporal Factors: Purchase time is critical. Buyers do not view price the same way when time-sensitive factors are at play, such as salary cycles, harvest seasons, major religious festivals (e.g., Ramadan, Christmas), or even school fee seasons.
One of the most surprising insights from this research, particularly regarding the BNPL schemes, is the persistent and strong cultural mindset around debt-aversion and immediate ownership across African countries like Kenya and Nigeria. Instead of merely pushing the BNPL model, businesses in Africa can flip the script by initiating a “Plan Now, Buy Later” model. This approach allows customers to pay in advance for products or services they plan to need. This model empowers consumers with control, removes the stress of debt, and still supports planned purchasing behaviour. Region, timing, and buyer type are crucial contextual considerations that can make price models more flexible, adaptable, and personalised for African buyers.
Africa’s informal, aspirational, and trust-based market demands a fundamentally different pricing model to cultivate sustained customer patronage and achieve market dominance.
Authors
Uchenna Uzo, Faculty and Academic Director, Africa Retail Academy, Lagos Business School
Mahmood Abdullahi Loke, Director, Accel360 Hub
Ephraim Nwokporo, Manager, Research and Partnerships, Africa Retail Academy, Lagos Business School
