Any business or sole proprietor legally registered in the United States that sells authentic African or African-diaspora products. That includes food and groceries, spices, beauty and skincare, apparel, jewelry, home goods, art, and crafts. Resellers of mass-market products will not be approved.
Listing is free. We charge a 10% commission on each completed sale, automatically deducted before payout. No monthly fee, no listing fee, no setup fee.
Most applications are reviewed within 48 hours. We'll email you the decision and you can also track the status inside the seller portal.
You'll be asked to upload:
- A government-issued ID (passport or driver's license)
- Business registration or LLC paperwork (or sole-proprietor documentation)
- EIN / TIN for tax purposes
If you make food or beauty products, additional documentation (FDA-registered facility, cottage-food license, etc.) may be requested during review.
You submit each product through the seller portal. Our team reviews it for:
- Complete information (title, description, SKU, price, inventory, at least one image)
- Image quality
- Compliance (no prohibited products, accurate claims)
You'll see one of three outcomes inside the portal: Approved (we'll add it to the storefront), Needs changes (with specific feedback), or Declined. You can edit and resubmit anytime your product is in Draft, Needs changes, or Declined state.
Only if your product has them. The Add Product form supports up to three option dimensions (e.g., Size · Color · Pack) and as many variant combinations as you need. Each variant can have its own SKU, price, and inventory count. Single-variant products are perfectly fine.
Once approved, our team exports your product to the Shop Africa USA Shopify storefront. From your side this is one click — the product status in your dashboard moves from Approved to Live on Shopify the moment the export happens, and shoppers can buy it immediately.
Yes — submit the edit through the portal and it goes back into the review queue. Once re-approved, the storefront listing is updated in the next export cycle (usually within 24 hours).
You do. Shop Africa USA is a marketplace, not a warehouse. When a buyer places an order on the storefront, you receive an email and your portal flags the order. You pack and ship using your own label and carrier, then mark it shipped with a tracking number.
Yes — shelf-stable foods are very welcome (spices, dry mixes, snacks, oils, sauces in sealed jars). Perishable or refrigerated foods require verified cold-chain shipping and case-by-case approval. Alcohol and tobacco are not permitted.
On our main storefront at shopafricausa.com. The seller portal and admin portal are operator tools. As a buyer, you check out through the Shopify storefront like any other online shop.
The seller you ordered from. Their name appears on the product page and on your order confirmation. Tracking comes from their chosen carrier (USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc.).
Most sellers ship within 2 business days of order confirmation. Typical delivery within the U.S. is 3–7 business days from shipment, depending on the carrier and your address.
Each seller publishes their own return policy on their product page. Our minimum standard requires sellers to accept returns of unopened, non-perishable items within 14 days of delivery. To start a return or refund, log into your customer dashboard or contact us via Contact support.
Every seller is hand-reviewed before being allowed on the marketplace. We verify business documents, check for IP issues, and reject anyone selling mass-market knockoffs. If you ever suspect a product isn't authentic, contact support and we'll investigate within 48 hours.
The marketplace is U.S.-focused. Most sellers ship only within the U.S. A few ship to Canada — look for the shipping notice on the product page.
For Phase 1, all buyer–seller communication is routed through Shop Africa USA support. Submit your question and we'll relay it to the seller; you'll see the reply in your customer dashboard.
Payouts run twice monthly — on the 1st and the 15th. We hold each order's funds for 7 days after delivery to allow for returns and disputes, then release the seller's share (sale price minus 10% commission) on the next payout date.
Yes — $50 USD. Balances below that roll into the next payout cycle. You can see your pending balance and next payout date in the seller portal under Earnings & Payments.
Bank transfer (ACH) by default. PayPal and Wise are available on request. International sellers may incur third-party fees we cannot waive.
You are responsible for your own income tax. Shop Africa USA collects and remits sales tax on the storefront where required by Shopify. We issue an IRS Form 1099-K to U.S. sellers whose annual sales cross the federal reporting threshold.
The customer contacts support; we route the request to you. If you approve the refund, we issue it through Shopify and the refunded amount (including the platform's share, prorated) is deducted from your next payout. We do not deduct chargeback fees unless the chargeback resulted from misrepresentation in your listing.
Repeated late shipments (more than 5% over a month), no tracking, refusing valid returns, or selling prohibited products can trigger a warning. Persistent issues can lead to suspension. We always try to communicate first and give time to fix the issue.
Email sellers@shopafricausa.com. We'll: pull your listings, fulfill any pending orders, hold your final payout for the standard 7-day return window, then release it. You can also request a CSV export of your product data.
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