People now enjoy shopping on platforms that offer great deals from the comfort of their homes since the inception of e-commerce in Africa. What used to be an exclusive preserve of residents of developed countries has now been made possible for people in Africa, in general, and Nigerians, in particular. The story of this luxury cannot be complete without acknowledging its key player, Jumia.
The popularity of Jumia has gone far beyond the shores of this continent and was rated by Amazon’s Alexa as the most visited e-commerce website in Nigeria. Jumia despite emerging from a German start-up incubator has now become deeply rooted in African soil.
Jumia, which is often referred to as Amazon or Alibaba of Africa, has raised the bar in the e-commerce market through its unique features and great feats. Some of which are:
Cash Payment on Delivery Policy: Jumia adapted its payment methods to match the preferences of African consumers. This policy, which is one of the key drivers for Jumia’s growth, allows customers to pay in cash to the delivery agent. It also serves to instill confidence in consumers, who are still wary of making online payments. This also helped to engender trust among sellers and buyers in the African market.
Delivery Solutions: One aspect Jumia has been an e-commerce enabler in its innovation in logistics. With logistics being one of the main challenges of e-commerce, Jumia, apart from having third-party logistics partners, created its own fleet of delivery trucks. This has helped the company overcome geographical limitations.
Stock Exchange: Jumia also led the way for e-commerce in Africa when it went public on the New Year Stock Exchange (NYSE) in April 2019 and raised $196 million in net proceeds. It was also recently ranked among the fifty smartest companies in the world by MIT, a great achievement that has brought global recognition in the field of e-commerce not only to Nigeria but to Africa as a whole.
The employment rate in Africa: Asides servicing the needs of consumers and businesses, Jumia has created employment for many Africans. With over 5,000 employees, Jumia is generating employment in engineering, IT, online marketing and web development across Africa. At this rate, it is obvious Jumia is going to contribute significantly towards the three million jobs expected from online marketplaces by 2025. Recently, it opened a tech hub in Egypt for the development of JumiaPay.
Fintech: Another unique move in Jumia’s business is the creation of JumiaPay, a third-party online payment solution that provides a safer, faster and more convenient online payment experience for its users. The platform, which is functional in six notable countries – Nigeria, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Morocco, and Kenya, has been expanded to offer its consumers an increasing range of relevant everyday services.
Jumia Mall: Jumia allows small and big brands, mostly OEMs with varieties of products and services to sell to showcase their products and services on the Jumia Mall. This has created opportunities for brands to reach a larger audience across the continent. This contributes immensely to SME growth on the continent, with a ripple impact on the African economy.
Black Friday Deals: Jumia is recorded to be the first e-commerce platform to record the highest sales during the recently concluded Black Friday sales. It was reported that over 100 million visitors were on the Jumia platform that day, with a record of one billion views. This is an unprecedented feat in the African e-commerce sector.
Jumia since its inception has received a lot of notable awards of which the most recent is the e-Commerce Company of the Year 2019.
