Stronger Together: Significant Things JUMIA Has Done In 8-Years

Opinion

By Emmanuel Nwachukwu

Eight years might seem too short to achieve great feats, but this is not the case of Jumia as they celebrate their 8th year of reputable service holding from June 22nd till July 15th, 2020 themed ‘Stronger Together’. Jumia has proven beyond doubt that one can accomplish in 8years what others may not stand to achieve in 80years. Since its inception in the year 2012, it has evolved rapidly and successfully recorded significant feats in several areas of its operations in Nigeria. While others may be at an “eight ball” struggling to survive through the harsh conditions of business in the country, Jumia keeps impressing us and alleviating beyond expectations.

Jumia Nigeria has grown from being just an idea to a full-blown thriving e-commerce business, surviving through barriers and implementing new business ideas, incorporating Jumia Logistics, Jumia Services, Jumia Prime, Jumia Force, JumiaPay, Jumia Mall and Jumia Foods. All of these innovations have been doing beautifully well and generating revenue for the country. Jumia has helped place Nigeria on the frontline of efficient e-commerce operating countries. Here are some of the notable ways Jumia has proved its ability:

Benefitting Partnerships
Over the years, Jumia, is notable for partnering with brands and organizations to help bring their customers better deals. Some of these partnerships are with P&G to provide citizens with hygienic and essential products, Reckitt Benckiser, Mastercard, IrokoTV, Coca Cola. Also notable is Jumia’s diverse partnership with the government, this serves to prove its sentiment for the betterment of humanity and its environs, a recent contribution was the handwashing campaign with Lagos state government to further sensitize Nigerians about the threat that the recent pandemic poses, another was volunteering their Jumia Logistics services to deliver COVID-19 kits safely to health workers and also donating over 100,000 face masks to the federal government, their patriotic efforts cannot be ignored.

Authenticity and Quality Products/Services
Jumia’s vision is to build the most beloved and trusted shopping destination for Africans, and it has been able to achieve this by providing people with genuine products at unbeatable prices from local & international vendors for 8years nonstop. In a bid to ensure optimum quality of goods sold on their platform, Jumia revealed the various levels of quality control check put in place to ensure this is continuously achieved and that sellers of fake goods are fined a sum of N70,000.

Best Deals & Offers
Jumia undoubtedly offers the widest assortment of products at an unbeatable price, ranging from their price slash, treasure hunts, flash sales, they offer an explosion of amazing deals and discounts, best prices on desired products, discount vouchers.

Employment Opportunities and MSMEs Empowerment
Private sectors do a lot in supporting the government’s effort to curb the level of poverty in the country, Jumia is one of these private sectors, Jumia currently has over 5,000 employees in Africa and quite a number of vendors currently selling on its platform. Jumia has created room for business sustainability over the years for MSMEs, and economic growth has become phenomenal. Jumia consistently invests in physical and network infrastructure and manpower, this remains a significant contributor to the growth of Nigeria’s economy and that of Africa as a whole. Jumia’s promotion of adopting online shopping, logistics, digital payment and supply value chain as a lifestyle made it easier for several MSMEs and startups to survive instead of completely shutting down operations during the COVID19 pandemic.

Unique Innovations
Another significant achievement of Jumia is their numerous innovations for the betterment of their service to their customers and the country, one of which is the JumiaPay which was introduced in 2015, a secure payment gateway for people to shop on all Jumia digital platforms. They enforced the “payment on delivery” policy, therefore, gaining the trust of people. Also, other services like Jumia Logistics, Jumia Services, Jumia Prime, Jumia Force, Jumia Mall and Jumia Food were introduced and they’ve been doing really well in serving their customers.

Image Building and Good Reputation
Again, Jumia has received notable awards that have brought about recognition and good image to the country. Jumia has a record of 15 million monthly visitors, many app downloads during Black Friday in 2015, referred to as the number one eCommerce website in Nigeria, Jumia went public on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2019 which put Nigeria on the “E-commerce world map”. In 2013, Jumia became the first African company to win the world retail awards. Jumia ranked among the MIT 50 smartest companies globally in 2016 and 2017.

*Emmanuel Nwachukwu,A Business and Communications Strategist writes from Lagos.