E-commerce Company, Jumia, revealed that the months of May and June saw its highest amounts of active vendors, most amounts of customers on-site, and increased amount of unique product purchases on the platform so far in the year 2020.
According to Massimiliano Spalazzi, CEO, Jumia Nigeria, the online retail store saw a drop in numbers at the beginning of the Lockdown across many states in Nigeria as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the company stabilized at the beginning of May, with the ease of lockdown, and saw a significant spike in the number of purchases for essential goods such as groceries and household items.
Speaking during a webinar on Wednesday to announce Jumia’s plans for its 8th year anniversary with members of the media, Spalazzi said: “We definitely had challenges due to the COVID-19 lockdown, currency devaluation and prices of goods increase in this market. However, with our contactless delivery initiatives, contactless payment via Jumia Pay and partnerships with several companies that produce consumer goods, we saw more new and old customers come on our platform to shop in safety.”
Tolulope George-Yanwah, country manager, Jumia services, said: “Our delivery partners increased year on year (YoY) by 73 percent, delivery associate community saw a 65 percent increase YoY and our pick up points and warehouses increased YoY by 109 percent with over 200 hubs. This shows that our delivery methods have significantly improved with higher volumes of purchases and deliveries made.”
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For its 8th year anniversary, themed ‘Stronger Together’, Jumia has put in place different marketing initiatives to further drive engagement, sales and reward customers. Omolola Oladunjoye, chief commercial officer, Jumia Nigeria, explained that the flash sales, seven days Jumia Prime free trial, discount vouchers and treasure hunts with discounted items of up to 99percent, will be available on the platform for customers from the 22nd of June till the 5th of July 2020.
On ensuring optimum quality of goods sold on the online platform, Jumia says it has various levels of quality control checks in place in all its shipping hubs and sellers of fake goods are penalized N70, 000 and products identified as substandard or fake are usually returned.
Speaking on the progress recorded on Jumia Food during the lockdown, Spalazzi said the growth on Jumia Food platform has been very fast, and that the company has also noticed very interesting consumer patterns during the lockdown.
“Unlike before, when we used to get a lot of food deliveries to the island where most people work, we have noticed that food requests have now moved to the mainland where most people reside rather than the workplace. I think it’s going to grow even faster, as the month-on-month volume of orders since March 2020 has increased by over 30 percent. We are also onboarding new vendors that you will see live in the next three weeks,” he said.
