Two years ago, Jumia made a bold move to expand geographically and targeted the Kenyan market for immediate penetration. Combatting the initial challenges of trust, acceptability and infrastructure gaps, and the brand has made significant progress in establishing itself as revealed by recent reports suggesting a significant upsurge in received orders.
Parinaz Firozi, Managing Director at Jumia Kenya says the online retailer successfully grew orders by a whopping 900 percent in 2014, and it accomplished this feat by deploying the two-pronged tactic of understanding and adapting to the needs of Kenyan customers while maintaining aggressive marketing efforts.
This development shows a lot of promise for the eCommerce industry in Kenya which has, in a sense, been slow to pick up steam. Last year, the Communications Authority of Kenya released statistics suggesting that the East African nation’s eCommerce industry was worth Sh4.3 ($47.2 million) billion, a far cry from South Africa’s Sh54 billion ($593 million) eCommerce sector. Identified drivers of this disparity, according to the CA, included high custom duty and taxes paid on imports and inadequate cybersecurity.
“When we entered the Kenyan market in 2013, we realized there were many hurdles we had to overcome. The Kenyan consumer is generally either unbanked or underbanked. For those who have credit or debit cards, they do not want to reveal their bank account details on a platform they have not used before,” says Firozi, adding that understanding the Kenyan consumer has helped Jumia rapidly scale to be the biggest retailer in the country with over 100,000 different products.
Despite the impediments, there is a steady continent-wide increase in digital adoption and an attendant increase in the number of tech-savvy middle-class citizens, the typical target for eCommerce firms. This trend is expected to usher in an era of digital awareness and the necessary infrastructure to sustain it.
With a presence in 13 countries and 3000 employees across Africa, Jumia continues to shake the e-commerce industry in Sub-Saharan Africa by offering variety and favourable pricing. Adapting to the customers’ preferred shopping practices and payment platforms helped project the Jumia brand in the right light and eventually increased its value in Kenya.
“Jumia provided an opportunity for shoppers to pay cash or M-Pesa on delivery and today, this accounts for a majority of our transactions. These were the real factors that helped us scale to the extent we did. We understood what the customer wanted and provided the solution,” explains Firozi.
Jumia’s return policy, which allows for the return of purchased goods within 7 days at no charge, was a silver bullet as it helped win the trust of Kenyan customers, some 75 percent of which lie in the 25-45 year age group.
Looking ahead, Jumia continues to position as a viable launch pad and entry route for international brands looking to penetrate the African market as it has recently struck partnerships with Microsoft and two other mobile brands.
By Emmanuel Iruobe
