‘In the first few hours of Black Friday, Jumia had about 5,300 customer orders’

Online retail shops have taken advantage of the rise of electronic commercial activities in Nigeria and its contributions to the growth of the economy. Last year’s Black Friday sales recorded many successes being the first time that such huge amounts of discounts were given to shoppers in preparation for the festive period. In this interview, Juliet Anammah, Chief Executive Officer, Jumia Nigeria tells Jumoke Akiyode how Jumia, one of largest online retailers, plans to achieve a successful Black Friday in 2016 regardless of the country’s economic recession.

Last year, e-commerce sites in Nigeria launched black Friday sales for the first time ever in the country and so people got excited about the idea and bought a lot of items in preparation for the festive period. This year, what are you doing to make people interested in shopping?

Every black Friday is different and everyone has a different theme and focuses of different needs of customers. So for this year, I would judge the success of the sales based on the objectives that we have set for it. This year, we looked at the broad scope of different things that customers may want. Being realistic, it is not that customers have stopped shopping, it’s just that they shop for different things and their priorities change, so you find that this year we have, in addition to home appliances that people may buy like washing machines, air conditioners, blenders, irons, and things they need for their home, we also realised that people may also shop for their babies, which we never had before but now we have diapers and baby clothes, to the extent that the objectives of this black Friday features broadening the scope of what you offer to customers and also negotiating ahead for these customers on the kinds of deals that we can offer them. If we achieve that, then we’ve achieved our objectives.

What are you doing to reduce complaints from customers who last year complained about placing orders but not receiving the items due to sudden unavailability in stock?

One of the challenges of Black Friday is that it is one day. So one day for massive logistics that is very difficult to handle. So apart from what customers see online, in reality, it’s a huge logistics event, so when you have it on one day, it is a very massive operation to deal with and realistically, you would end up having situations where customers may have placed and order and that item has become out of stock because someone else has picked that order and it has not been updated. That is why this year; we have decided to spread it for twelve days. Not everyone wants to buy at once, so maybe someone just got married and needs a washing machine for his new house, or maybe someone else wants to buy a new dress because she has an upcoming event, by spreading it and giving each day a particular theme, we also reduce the pressure in terms of logistics operations. That way, it is easier for us to also handle the overall logistics operations and make sure that customers have the opportunity of ordering and getting what they ordered delivered. This year’s Black Friday, we are focusing on customer experience and vendor experience to make sure that we design it in such a way that it is easier for our customers and vendors to handle. We are essentially particular about making sure that we achieve great deals for customers. We may be able to get, for example, 500 cookers or 500 freezers at rock bottom prices because the brands that own those items would also be investing but all of those items could be gone in 2 hours, so if you come 2 hours later, the people who placed their orders before you have taken all the items and what you have left becomes available at the regular price. That’s the reality. There is a limited number of stock on sale, so that is why we encourage customers that know what particular items they want to buy, once the black Friday sales are launched at 12 midnight, be the first to purchase those items because it is on a first come, first serve basis .

What percentage increase are you envisaging this year?

I would not go into specific numbers because for us, the important thing this year is customer experience because last year, we had a huge amount of sale, but in terms of actually making sure that the customers got the items on time and all that was not so great, so our focus this year is really is primarily making sure that customers are happy and that they have a good experience. That they can get on to the site at anytime and the site is working and loading on time, they are able to get what they want and that the items are delivered within the timeline we have promised and in perfect condition. For us, if we achieve that this year, that is the primary objective.

Do you think the current economic recession in Nigeria will affect volume of sales and traffic?

Interestingly, our traffic has not dipped. This year versus last year, the traffic has not gone down. The trend in terms of Black Friday traffic versus normal day is the same, traffic hasn’t changed. I think what is happening is that customers are re prioritising. So for example, today we launched the free delivery for small and medium items so a lot of people are taking the opportunity to buy small and medium items and get them delivered free of charge. If you remove the cost of shipping and I get a good deal on that item then of course I would be interested. Everybody is buying based on their priorities and that’s what offering a broader scope helps to achieve.

How do you manage competition from other online retail chains who are offering equally good deals on the same or similar items? 

Like I said, the thing about Jumia is that we focus mainly on customer and vendor experience and we concentrate almost exclusively on the assortment so if you have a broad array of assortment, we can get products at good prices relative to competitors and get them conveniently delivered to you. So for example, we are expanding the reach in terms of the number of pick up stations we have. So for some items, if you are able to get those items from the closest pick up station, you don’t pay. We are just imagining the many things that could matter to our customers even before they think about it themselves. For me, that the edge we have. Apart from the fact that we try to create really exciting events like Black Friday.

How do you manage logistics of customers outside Lagos, since you have your warehouse only in Lagos?

We have a good spread between our own logistics network as well as the third party logistics, so that combination of our own network of hubs around the country and linking it to the network of our third party logistics, we are able to cover quite a number of customers across Nigeria. Secondly, because we have what we call our J-force, J-force is also able to reach customers in places where the customers don’t have access to the internet and are not able to order on their own. The fact that someone doesn’t have access to the internet does not mean that they don’t have needs. So the J-force is our means of saying we can reach customers, order on their behalf and be able to deliver those items to them. So that is how we reach people across the country.

How has the response to this year’s Black Friday sales been so far?

It has been very good so far. In the first few hours that Black Friday was launched, Jumia had about 5,300 customer orders.

What do you intend to do if a large amount of items sold during the sale are returned?

Return is part of e-commerce so there is nothing strange about that. We already understand that, as we have been in business for four years. We have data to know the rate of returns and our rate of return is not more than we expect. If a customer returns something, some other customers may want that item so those items are sold to other customers if they are still intact but once it is defective, we can’t sell it.