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Tag: Jumia

  • Jumia Launches First E-commerce Report

    Jumia Launches First E-commerce Report

     

     Africa’s leading e-commerce platform, Jumia, has published its first Africa  e-commerce report, Jumia Africa e-Commerce Index 2021 with a Nigerian section, which leveraged data from the company’s platform to illustrate the importance of shopping online in a pandemic context. 

     

    The shift to everyday products during COVID-19, is part of a broader economic transformation led by the continent’s young, urban and tech savvy population.

     

    Groceries and everyday essentials were the best selling products on Jumia during the pandemic.

     

    The effects of the pandemic, combined with dedicated commercial and marketing efforts on the Jumia side, led to a shift in its product category mix with everyday product categories including Fashion, Beauty and FMCG categories accounting for c. 57% of GMV in 2020, up from 44% in 2019.

     

    Jumia Nigeria CEO, Massimiliano Spalazzi said: “Since the COVID-19 outbreak, e-commerce has played an important role by supporting sellers, consumers and communities. Many businesses have joined  Jumia to keep their business running and to grow. Consumers used  Jumia for their daily needs and seeked convenience and competitive prices on the platform too.”

     

    E-commerce played an important role during the pandemic by providing solutions for both businesses and the communities they serve.

     

     Jumia’s partnerships with various brands and organizations have enabled SMEs to connect with millions of consumers online.

     

    According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), internet businesses in Africa, including e-commerce which sits at the heart of the digital economy, could add US $180 billion to the continent’s GDP by 2025.

     

     “COVID-19 led to a surge in the use of digital solutions, including e-commerce. This was particularly demonstrated with  domestic sales rather than cross border e-commerce. Food delivery, essentials, and pharmaceutical goods were among the top performing online shopping categories,” said Torbjorn Fredriksson, Head of E-commerce and Digital Economy, UNCTAD.

     

    Lagos city leads the list of cities with the most volume of orders on the Jumia logistics Network in Nigeria.

     

    Jumia Nigeria has more than 11,000 sellers, having achieved gender parity with 51% of sellers on the platform as women.  81% of Nigerians shop online with their smartphones, with 19% access the online platform through desktops. 

     

     

    The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency, Inuwa Kashifu Abdullahi said; “E-Commerce is critical to any digital economy because when you consume a service, you need to make a payment and you can only do that through e-commerce.”

     

    Many consumers turned to JumiaPay, the payment platform for the first time during the pandemic, mainly for safety reasons and for the enhanced services on the app like bill payments.

     

    The report was done in collaboration with UNCTAD, IFC, Mastercard and others partners, highlighting the impact of e-commerce on the African economy.

     

    The full report is available here

     

  • How E-commerce Promotes Local Restaurants, African Cuisines

    How E-commerce Promotes Local Restaurants, African Cuisines

     

    Since Covid-19 entered the global equation in the early part of 2020, business operations and other human activities have been reshaped to embrace digitalization.

     

    The online community has thus continued to expand, as the majority of businesses strive for an online presence and customer reach.

     

    Online food delivery market witnessed a boom in the heat of lockdown and social restrictions, a trend which appears to be gaining more traction by the day. 

     

    This growing popularity of fast food, coupled with the growing trend for convenience and value for money have opened up opportunities in the Nigeria food market.

     

    Local producers and restaurants have indeed embraced this evolution and reached new customers. Online food delivery players like Jumia have also played a key role in shaping the supply chain and opening up the market to new entrants.

     

    Country Manager, Jumia Services, Adetunji Lanase, explained that Jumia Food is reaching customers  across nine states of the federation.

     

    “We currently deliver meals across nine cities in Nigeria: Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Ilorin as well as key cities in the North: Kano Kaduna, and Minna.

     

    “It is interesting to note that 95% of restaurants on Jumia Food are local brands. Nigerian meals and organic food are growing fast due to new demand for local and healthy food. But burger, pizza, chicken, African dishes and kebab are the most popular cuisines,” he said. 

     

    The most popular local food vendors on the Jumia Food platform in Nigeria are Chicken Republic, The Place, Sweet Sensation, Kilimanjaro and Drumstick. Also available on the Jumia platform is Sooya Bistro, owned by popular Nigerian pop singer, Bankole Wellington, better known as Banky W.

     

    Speaking on how e-commerce has been supportive for business growth and reach, Head of Marketing The Place Restaurant, Ufuoma Ogeleka said “Our partnership with Jumia has consistently provided us with an opportunity to expand our existing customer base, attend to the dining needs of our customers at their convenience and in an efficient manner and reward our customers for continually trusting us.”

     

    According to the year 2020 Jumia Food Index Report, customers order more from these platforms due  to their affordable meals.

     

    “Chicken Republic gives me an opportunity to use their Refuel Meal which is quite cheap when you look at the current market prices,” said Sunkanmi Emmanuel, a Software Engineer who shops for food on the Jumia platform.

     

    Online food delivery is fast becoming a lifestyle among the emerging middle class population, with many relying on having their hot meals and groceries delivered at their doorsteps, as against going out to offline retail stores to purchase.

     

    The online marketplace is no doubt an influencing factor, boosting local food sales for restaurants, as new generations of Nigerian middle-class consumers are spending more money on food and grocery products, thereby helping to fuel growth in the market.

  • ‘We Are Like The Biggest Employer of Labour In Festac Town, Courtesy of Jumia,’ Says  ACOA Courier CEO

    ‘We Are Like The Biggest Employer of Labour In Festac Town, Courtesy of Jumia,’ Says  ACOA Courier CEO

    A logistics partner of ecommerce market leader, Jumia, Chidi Anyina, founder of ACOA Courier, has espoused the growing importance of logistics in the country saying the company which started in a corner of one room has grown to become one of the biggest employers of labour in Festac Town in Lagos.

    The tale of ACOA Courier is one of many logistics SMEs in different regions of the country, who have been able to upscale their businesses by leveraging the partnership benefits of the likes of Jumia. 

     

    Speaking on the impact of the partnership on his firm, Anyina explained that the business which started with three staff, has not only expanded its footprint to other regions of the country, but has also been able to impact its immediate environment.

     

     “We have been with Jumia for the past eight years. And we started off just in a boys quarters of about two rooms, with just a bike, a van and two other staff. And now we have graduated to having about 37 staff spread across three environments, two states; Lagos (Festac Town and Satellite) and then Aba.

     

    “We started off doing about a hundred orders every other day. Now, we did 17,000 orders in June. That shows the scale that we’ve grown over the course of the years. We’ve seen ups and downs; we’ve lost and we’ve gained. But most importantly, we’ve impacted the community; we’re like the biggest employer of labour in Festac Town,” he said.

     

    Touching on the impact of covid-19 on his logistics business, the ACOA boss said his firm had to think on their feet, upscale in order to meet demands, especially during the first wave of the virus. Covid-19 was a tough time.

     

    “At that point, we were having volumes in spite of the lock down and the restrictions. We saw a surge for processing orders for nose masks, as well as hand sanitizers. That was the initial shock.

     

    “And we graduated to having food items, noodles packs and stuff. That was how that season went. It was even a time when we realized we had a boom because many of the markets were shut down and many people had to fulfil orders outside of the market so they were coming to us. We had to scale our operations, and even moved from a duplex to a duplex and a boys quarters just to be able to absorb the volume of items that were coming up at that time,” he explained.

     

    There are over 200 unique logistics companies (ranging from individual entrepreneurs to large companies) registered within the Jumia integrated network of logistics partners who provide support to Jumia in ensuring that packages are delivered to big cities, secondary cities and rural areas within the country.

  • Partnering With Jumia Has Helped Grow My Business – Fairy Trips CEO

    Partnering With Jumia Has Helped Grow My Business – Fairy Trips CEO

     

    Feeding off the growing online shopping trend offered by e-commerce, logistics services are now an integral part of everyday life in major cities across Nigeria. Delivery vans and bikes hit the roads, picking orders, delivering items, keeping businesses running and customers happy at different locations of the country.

     

    But these activities fastly becoming a daily routine were scarce and far a few years ago. Investment in logistics was not this lucrative especially for startups. The logistics boom of today was a result of logistics network investment by major industry players like Jumia, which opened up the market for startups entrepreneurs in the industry.

     

    As recalled by Segun Babs, Founder of Fairytrips Limited,  turnover at his logistics hub in the early years left him doubting his decision to venture into the sector. “We started as a ticketing company; we were supposed to be a flight company till we moved into logistics. As of 2018,  was the investment worth it? Absolutely no. We started and we had roughly about 400 packages being delivered in a month.

     

    And time after time, I will question my decision to start a business like this. I remember vividly at a time, I could barely pay salaries. I had to ask my wife to join in the business to just manage things. But I kept on believing that one day this was going to pay off,” he said.

     

    Today, the investment by Babs has paid off. The partnership with Jumia, as one of the platform’s delivery hubs has led to growth and expansion of the business. Benefiting from Jumia’s sales reach and brand campaigns, Babs’ company has also provided more employment opportunities directly and indirectly. “In 2018, I decided to give Jumia a try by opening a hub with Jumia. Has it paid off? Definitely yes. As of July this year, we did 14,000 packages. This was coming from a period of 40 packages that went even down to 14 packages.

     

    “As regards staff strength, we’ve moved from two guys in 2018 to ten staff. There are times we have to bring in our 3PL partners to support during tier one events where we have to bring in five more guys to be able to push out items on time and deliver on time. We started with one hub in one corner. Today we have two hubs; one in Lagos and another in Ibadan. I have moved from one bike to ten bikes and we have two vans. As of last week, we moved to order more vans from America to support this expansion.”

     

    The story of Fairytrips Limited is one of many other enterprises benefiting from the reach of e-commerce players like Jumia and Konga in all the regions of the country.

     

    In 2020, Jumia further deepened its impact in the industry by opening up its logistics network to third party businesses. The latest report by Jumia showed that the move is experiencing very strong momentum with a record 1.3 million packages delivered in the second quarter of 2021 compared to half a million packages in the full year 2020, on behalf of over 300 clients.

     

  • Jumia Offers Exciting Deals to Customers With Naija Shopping Festival Campaign

    Jumia Offers Exciting Deals to Customers With Naija Shopping Festival Campaign

    Nigeria’s leading e-tailer, Jumia, has launched a thrilling shopping experience to Nigerian customers with the Naija Shopping Festival campaign, running from the 12th of July to 29th of August.

     

    The festival offers customers a unique opportunity of a good bargain on every product of their choice at the best market prices.

     

    The campaign period (12th of July to 29th of August) is a window of opportunity for parents to leverage price discounts for holiday play items and back to school materials for their kids. It is also an ample opportunity for those working on their beach body for the holiday to get sports gear at the best prices.

     

    Customers are expected to download the Jumia App to fully exploit the benefits of the shopping festival.

     

     

    Head of Brands at Jumia Nigeria, Moyosore Oduwobi while commenting on offers available during the festival period said, Jumia marketplace offers simplicity and affordability to the Nigerian customers, and is offering them more on a wider range of products during the festival.

     

    “Naija Shopping Festival is every shopper’s dream. Every product you can think of that you’ll need this season, it’s available on Jumia. It’s a good opportunity for customers to delve into the simplicity of the experience and the affordability we offer. It’s our identity to give customers unbeatable prices from the comfort of their homes, and this and more is what they will be getting during this festival,” Oduwobi said.

     

    Some of the partners for the Festival include Pernod Ricard, Edifier, Adidas, Nivea, Xiaomi and Fanswedy.

     

    The campaign offers customers amazing shopping experiences and benefits such as Daily Flash sales, free shipping on selected brands, N100 clearance sales, live giveaways and surprises packages for shoppers on the weekends.

     

  • Jumia’s Track Record Helps Grow our Business- Nano Strix CEO

    Jumia’s Track Record Helps Grow our Business- Nano Strix CEO

    In recent years, the activities of e-commerce companies have opened up growth opportunities for individuals and businesses, as corporations and SMEs partner with ecommerce brands to increase their sales and further expand the frontiers of online sales and services in the country.

     

    One of the SMEs leveraging these e-commerce opportunities is Nano Strix, a 3PL logistics company based in Abuja. The company entered a partnership with Jumia in 2015 to provide third party logistics services, thus becoming the first logistics hub for Jumia in Northern Nigeria.

     

    This was at the onset of e-commerce in the country, with a lot of reservations and skepticism about feasibility of the services. “When we first started with Jumia in 2015, we were the first pilot hub in Northern Nigeria. We started this in ecommerce infancy in Nigeria. When we first started, the package volume was low and it had to do with slow user adoption of ecommerce. People didn’t necessarily trust puting their debit cards online. people didn’t necessarily trust that what they placed an order for would come.

     

    Over time, Jumia has built a name for itself where we now see a more positive trajectory in the industry. People are now more trusting of the services Jumia offers, putting their credit cards or debit cards online ordering items without the fear of being stuck with something they don’t like or expect,” explained Nano Strix CEO, Mohammed Maikudi. 

     

    For Nano Strix, it has been a journey of knowledge acquisition and growth with Jumia. According to Maikudi, partnering with the ecommerce firm has helped grow the business, created job opportunities, provided capacity building and technical support which has gone a long way in bringing the  staff into the digital age.

     

    “Our package volumes have started to increase over time, allowing us to employ more staff, provide more benefits to our staff and actually bring in our staff into the fold. For example, our volume has increased to a point now where we allow staff to bring into our own 3PL fleet, so everyone benefits from it,” He said.

     

    Jumia’s logistics network occupies an important space in the logistics ecosystem in Nigeria. Jumia’s investment in the logistics sector has boosted hundreds of independent logistics companies by incorporating them into the Jumia logistics network. The impact of this on SMEs has been immense. To further extend its impact on SMEs, the company opened its logistics network to businesses outside its marketplace. During the pilot conducted in 2020, Jumia shipped almost half a million packages on behalf of more than 270 clients.

     

  • NITDA DG Commends Jumia for Creating Thousands of Jobs in 9 Years

    NITDA DG Commends Jumia for Creating Thousands of Jobs in 9 Years

     

    It has been nine years of e-commerce service in Nigeria and Africa in general, with Jumia being the foremost player in the industry.

     

    In his congratulatory message to Jumia in commemoration of her 9th anniversary, Director General of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Abdullahi, commended the company for creating jobs for thousands of Nigerians through its operations in the digital economy ecosystem.

     

    Abdullahi stated that Jumia has had an impressive nine years of e-commerce journey which has seen it expand to several African countries, creating employment opportunities and becoming a good reference for innovative startups on the continent.

     

    He said: “For me honestly, it’s an impressive journey. Jumia started as a startup and in very little time you expanded your operations to many African countries and became the first unicorn company in Africa and you are still expanding.

     

    “These are the kind of startups we are encouraging to try and be an innovation driven enterprise. You look at the global market and huge capital investment and job creation. And also you are innovative and creating a lot of jobs in the ecosystem. Aside from the logistics, I think you have an ecosystem you are working on. So those are the kinds of innovation we encourage our startups with; innovation that creates jobs, wealth and prosperity for all. So I wish you more successful years ahead and congratulations for your 9th anniversary.”

     

    Adbullahi also touched on the impact of e-commerce on everyday life and its crucial space in the digital economy.

     

     “The most profound impact for me is how it makes life more convenient and less disturbing. Before covid, a lot of people didn’t like using online services. When covid came, we were disrupted and the only way to keep going was these online services. E-commerce is critical to any online services or digital economy because when you consume a service, you need to make a payment and you can only do that through e-commerce,” he said.

     

    In its nine years of operation, Jumia has also connected over 11,000 SMEs and brands to millions of consumers in Nigeria, boosted hundreds of independent logistics companies by incorporating them into the Jumia logistics network, and empowered many women-owned businesses through various empowerment initiatives.

  • How Loans From Jumia Provided Direct Access To Big Companies, Facilitated Bulk Purchase, And Improved My Business Workforce – Jumoke Akinsanya

    How Loans From Jumia Provided Direct Access To Big Companies, Facilitated Bulk Purchase, And Improved My Business Workforce – Jumoke Akinsanya

    Jumia seller and owner of Deeski.com, Jumoke Akinsanaya has lauded the ecommerce lending platform for helping expand her business.

     

    Akinsanya who sells groceries and home essentials on Jumia said the platform has helped her company achieve a lot in the last five years.

     

    According to her, Jumia has opened up her business to a lot of opportunities, one of which is prompt collateral-free loans.

     

    “It has been really exciting five years selling on Jumia and with the help of Jumia, we have been able to achieve a lot of things. Jumia has given a lot of opportunities, but one I will like to talk about is the Jumia lending platform. It has helped us to grow in the past three years. And it’s a collateral-free loan, that’s the best part of it,” she stated.

     

    Speaking on how Jumia Lending has helped expand her business, Akinsaya said it provided an opportunity for direct access to big companies, facilitated bulk purchase, and improved her business workforce.

     

    In her words: “I have been using the Jumia Lending platform to grow my business. At the beginning, we were doing it in bits, and a few times we were able to process our orders when we got them. But with Jumia lending, we’ve been able to buy in bulk and now have access to companies to purchase directly from them and that has helped expand our store. When we started, we had 300 assortments, but now we have 900. I have been able to increase my workforce as well. We started with six staff and we are about twelve now. Right now, we are running online but we’ve been able to expand our store. We don’t have an open store; we prefer to run online with the help of Jumia lending platform.”

     

    She further explained that the loan application process is fast, straightforward and convenient.

     

    According to her, it takes less than 24 hours and the latest 48 hours to get the loan. “My first application was the quickest of it. I just saw the loan application popup that I was qualified to get a loan on Jumia. I did it on a Saturday, and by Monday morning I got a call, and before the close of business on Monday I got the loan. It made me excited because I was able to get stocks instantly. I have since applied for the loan about five times.

     

    “For me, it’s very simple once you are able to provide everything they want, you get the funds. You get your loan, you use the money to process your orders, and then Jumia pays you back. They take their loan and the job is done. And if you want to renew, just apply on the platform. I don’t think everyone selling on Jumia understands what it means to get the loan. For me, as long as you are getting the loan through the right channel and for the right purpose, it’s a good deal,” she said.

     

    Jumia Lending is a small business loan open to sellers on the Jumia platforms to help grow and expand their businesses.

  • Jumia Brings Fitbit Devices Into Nigerian Market

    Jumia Brings Fitbit Devices Into Nigerian Market

    A leading digital marketing operator in the country, Jumia has finally brought in Fitbit devices to Nigeria.

     

    Fitbit innovative products are sold at a wide range of accessible price points in nearly 39,000 retail stores across more than 100 countries worldwide.

     

    Head of Consumer Electronics, Jumia Group, Sandeep Narayanan said: “We are seeing increasing consumer demand for wearable technology on our platform, and bringing Fitbit products to our customers in Nigeria is an important step for us to address this demand and help Fitbit expand its reach across the country. Jumia delivers a seamless online shopping experience for consumers and from our platform with a dedicated official store on Jumia.”

     

    Fitbit with its supports for healthier living, is committed to inspiring those who want to lead a healthier and more active life through its range of innovative smartwatches and trackers that are compatible with most Android and iOS platforms, including Fitbit Versa 3, Fitbit Versa 2, Fitbit Charge 4, Fitbit Inspire 2 and Fitbit Ace 2.

     

    Users of Fitbit products in Nigeria is said to now benefit from purchasing a membership to Fitbit Premium. Users new to Fitbit Premium can benefit from the 90-day free trial through the Fitbit App.

     

    In making the products more available, Fitbit Health Solutions is said to be offering corporate product discounts to local businesses through Fitbit’s distributor Redington Gulf.

     

    Fitbit, Inc. is an American consumer electronics and fitness company with headquarter in San Francisco, California. Its products are activity trackers, smartwatches, wireless-enabled wearable technology devices that measure data such as the number of steps walked, heart rate, quality of sleep, steps climbed, and other personal metrics involved in fitness.