Jumia Goods and Services: James Ndung’u was shopping for a brand new laptop one year ago when he pounced on a business idea that has since changed his life. The 23-year-old student at the Technical University of Kenya was searching for second hand laptops on Facebook when he came across an advertisement for laptops on the Jumia Kenya Facebook Page. “I had saved Sh. 45,000 from my side hustles and wanted to upgrade my laptop. I wanted a machine that would give me good space and speed and that meant I could only afford a second-hand laptop,” he says. This changed when he saw the advert. “It was a Lenovo IdeaPad 330-lKB which was on sale at Sh. 44,000 down from Sh. 60,000,” he says. Ndung’u knew that he had hit a jackpot. He would no longer have to go for a second hand item, but could get a brand new machine with a 15.6 inch screen, one terabyte HDD, 4 gigabytes of Ram, and free DOS.

“I immediately placed an order and got the option of getting a delivery over a pick up station. I opted to pick it up at the Jumia pick up station along University Way in Nairobi,” he says. Three days later, Ndung’u, who lives in Kawangware picked up his new laptop. “The efficiency gave me a nugget of an idea; There were far too many people in Kawangware who would relish getting goods and services on Jumia at a discount,” he said. Interestingly, out of this want, Ndung’u saw an opportunity to make extra money for himself.

He started a service of ordering and delivering goods for his friends and neighbours in Kawangware at a discount. For every item he ordered and delivered, Ndung’u would get a 5 per cent commission from the buyer. “I realized that Jumia had the greatest variety of goods and therein lay my opportunity,” says Ndung’u. Some of the items that he has ordered include mobile phones, smart televisions, air tickets, and beauty and fashion products. “Jumia has it all. If you need it, all I need to do is simply log in to the Jumia App or website and make an order for you,” he says. Some times he gets the goods delivered to his home in Kawangware, while at other times, he picks them at Jumia’s pick up points in Nairobi. His client base, has grown too. “My clients have grown through referrals. This means that I ensure that I align my deliveries with Jumia’s. It also means that I have had to replicate the efficiency of Jumia’s delivery system,” he says.

Coincidentally, as Ndung’u strives to provide all, Jumia Kenya is running the ‘Jumia has it all’ campaign which kicked off on July 29 and will conclude on August 4. “Our aim is to avail the widest variety of goods and services to consumers at manageable prices that they wouldn’t get anywhere else,” says Jumia in a statement to Bizna Kenya.

This dedication to offering consumers affordable goods and services has seen Jumia manifest itself as the leading e-commerce retailer in Kenya. In fact, in the general regional marketplace, there is no online retailer that has had as much influence as Jumia Kenya, which runs online brands such as Jumia Deals, Jumia Jobs, Jumia Food, Jumia Travel, and Jumia House. For example, Jumia has emerged as one of the leading destinations for internet users in Kenya. 11 per cent of internet users will visit Jumia to purchase or shop for items every month. Jumia, which also operates in 22 other African countries, recorded 550 million visits across Africa in 2017. The number of products on its brands grew to 5 million from just 50,000 recorded in 2012.

“Our growth has been anchored on innovations and introductions of shopping experiences that have attracted buyers who have never transacted online before,” says Jumia. Take the ‘Try Jumia for Free’ campaign that the company run mid last year. The campaign, which saw customers buy maize flour at Sh. 1 only and provided free deliveries for the product attracted 10,000 customers who shopped online for the first time. This campaign was in line with the government’s initiative of creating awareness on e-commerce platforms in Kenya. In June this year, Jumia sold sugar at just Sh. 20 per 2kg packet. “We will continue to bring down commodity prices,” says Jumia Managing Director, Sam Chappatte.

Notably, a joint report by the Communications Authority of Kenya and the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) says that 27 per cent of firms in Kenya are now selling their products online. Similarly, the report says that 32.1 per cent are yet to start selling online because they fear that their products are not suited for sale online. But this is an assumption that Jumia is proving wrong, with its assortment of products and deliveries that were previously thought of as a preserve of traditional retailers. These include the Jumia same-day groceries’ purchases and deliveries.