Foreign buyers check out wigs at a trading center in Yiwu, Zhejiang province. ZHANG JIANCHENG/FOR CHINA DAILY

The number of consumers from Africa has been growing rapidly this year, especially within the online market, a recent report showed.

During the first five months of this year, the number of African consumers surged 66.3 percent year-on-year, according to statistics from Made-in-China.com, a comprehensive service platform for foreign trade.

Nearly 90 percent of products in Africa are made in China, and the imported goods primarily focus on mechanical and electrical products, machinery and apparatus, vehicle transportation, clothing and textiles, plastics, miscellaneous goods, and products from the chemistry industry, according the report by Made-in-China.com.

At present, Africa has a target market of nearly 1.4 billion customers, in which the young population accounts for 70 percent. With the rising popularity of the internet and smartphones, online buyers have been increasing year by year, especially the buyers in South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and Ghana, which are particularly keen on products made in China.

Meanwhile, African buyers are usually more price conscious and it takes longer to place orders, the report showed. It also provides an extensive analysis of a wide range of categories in 26 industries and provides suppliers with a variety of tools for market development.

Jin Siying contributed to this story