With over 4 million products, available to online shoppers, Jumia has solidified its competitive edge to become the one-stop shopping destination in Kenya by focusing on a wide range of products, best pricing and giving its customers and vendors the best experience while shopping on Jumia.

“Our Mission is to be the most useful brand in Kenya and the most loved shopping destination. It takes time to build trust in customers, and growing more customers to buy online,” said Sam, CEO Jumia Kenya

The launch of Jumia Black Friday 2018 on November 2^nd attracted over six times more traffic to the website than last year with the biggest range of products at the best pricing and the best deals un the market.

” Jumia Black Friday 2018 has had really big numbers, particularly on the app users shopping online this year, encouraging more customers to download the Jumia App. Best deals are exclusively on the app, which is much faster and consumes fewer data and user-friendly. For a better shopping experience, we have encouraged our customers to shop from the app to have to access best deals, flash sales, and treasure hunts,” mentioned Sam

Pricing Delights.

Every Friday of November is a black Friday. Repeated deals on consumer products, Flash sale, and treasure hunt have brought in the numbers, with over 70,000 people eyeing the same product at once when the flash sales go live.

“With flash sales, they get sold out very fast.  Depending on the investment, we vary the number of pieces we put on flash sales, making our stock very limited. With over 70,000 people at one point going for 300 phone, some people will be disappointed. But we put as much stock as we can especially with consumer goods like unga,” he added

“the treasure hunt is one item which is a huge investment. You have to search for the specific item. It takes a very short time to find it. We communicate transparently to our customers, from how much has gone up to when the product is totally sold out because they sell very first,” he said.

Online shoppers must be ready and very fast, knowing exactly what they want and when they are up, to enjoy the great deals.

Repurchase drivers

To keep their customers on boards, Jumia has a more range of products, from which consumers are likely to likely to get what they want.

“Being reliable is one way to delight our customers. It matters that we deliver consistently and on time to our customers, creating a real customer experience.  In our marketing budget to existing customers, we have incorporated voucher codes, to drive that repurchase. The share of orders between new and repeated customers has changed. Our sales are highly driven by driven by repeated customers,” he noted

Competition: A blessing in disguise.

Kenya’s E-commerce platform is becoming increasingly competitive, with Alibaba and Amazon eyeing the space and Safaricom’s Masoko already in place.

“Our competition is offline. Converting people who’ve never shopped online into online shoppers is our main focus because 99% of retail happens offline. Anyone who helps us convert these offline customers by spending on marketing,  educating people,  building the trust of customers into to the online world is very good for us. It means we have to spend less money and time in the process.  The more diverse the online shopping industry, the more attractive and more competition which is good for business,” he mentioned.

Strict onboarding process for Vendors.

Over 100 vendors sign up with Jumia on a daily basis. The vendors are attracted to the site organically. Yet not everyone can sell on Jumia.

“ We do quality control for our vendors. The successful ones taken through an onboarding phase and fully trained. When customers order we quality check with both our new and existing vendors. We take customer’s feedback very.” said Sam

Jumia Guarantee cushions customers from bad product experience. Three months after the purchase, the customers get a replacement or a refund.

Payment in installment.

Jumia is looking to roll out consumer products that customers can pay in installments for high-end products.

Sam noted that increase in competition in telco space has made the cost of data come down, making it easier for customers to access Jumia services.

Innovative and growing market in Kenya

“ We try to adapt to new models and learn from our customers. We like change and we like to be fast so we can continuously get better. Kenya has tonnes of potential for e-commerce. It’s special and growing very well. It’s very innovative in trying out new things, ” he added.