Electronic commerce is much less common in Madagascar than in the United States.  Mobile banking and payment services provided by the four major mobile network operators in the country have seen enormous success since their introduction in 2010.  Mobile banking reached more than 700,000 people in Madagascar in less than two years of operation.  The French Agency for Development (AFD) reported that in late 2014 there were 890 service points and some 1,300,000 clients for an outstanding loan amount of EUR 145 million.  Recently, the national post office started offering competitive services like mobile money, thus contributing to increased financial inclusion.

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Art (MICA) regulates domestic online sales.  The main issues likely to arise on entering the Madagascar market selling online either B2B or B2C are low banking access (less than 20 percent of Malagasy have a bank account), high credit card fees (2.5 percent to 4.25 percent), lack of a normalized address location system, fraud, and administrative burdens.  Businesses selling online must have a secured online website.  E-Commerce owners and managers must have a mandatory signed engagement to protect clients; there must be a signed agreement between the seller and its customer, and round-the-clock processes for banks to seek customer approval for the use of credit card for e-commerce purposes.