Information and communications technology (ICT) stakeholders have said Jumia, an online shopping platform, have redefined eCommerce in the country last year, by empowering more Nigerians to shop and transact online.
“2014 was a record breaking year for e-commerce and Jumia in Nigeria, especially with the release of an infographic by Jumia, towards the end of 2014, with amazing facts, figures and records broken,” they said in Lagos.
According to them, since Jumia’s launch in 2012, the team has been committed to empowering Nigerians, building trust in online shopping and emerging as the online retailer of choice for Nigerians.
“Have you ever wondered how high orders placed in 2014 at Jumia would be when stacked up on each other? You simply have no idea. 220 Burj Khalifa placed on one another will be a dead ringer. Or do you want to know the longest call ever received from a customer in 2014 or even maybe the farthest distance covered in delivery of a single item. Other amazing facts you may want to know is what brands Jumia customers bought the most, how many customers visited the page and awesome stuff the leading online retailer is doing for society, and this is just a tip of the iceberg,” the stakeholders said.
In 2014, in a move that further redefined the ecommerce industry in Nigeria, Jumia secured new rounds of investments in the initial sum of €120 million from MTN Group, Africa’s leading telecommunications company by subscriber number, a move that has been seen by many as the strongest alliance in Nigerian corporate circles. The investment, among others made by existing shareholders, strengthened JUMIA’s position as one of the leading online retailer in Africa. This saw the launch of the MTN ‘Be Better’ campaign.
According to the Chief Marketing Officer of MTN Nigeria, Bayo Adekanbi, “The Be Better campaign taps into the desire of Nigerians to live a better life for themselves and their families, looking at various facets of their lives. MTN therefore encourages Nigerians to enrich themselves with the power of information powered by the internet on their mobile devices. This way they can make better decisions, learn and do new things.”
Jumia and MTN also embarked on series of campaigns aimed at sensitizing their customers as to the amazing world of opportunities across both platforms. The Jumia/MTN connectivity week, saw both brands storm the streets with an aim to bridge the gap between customers offline and the over 100,000 products available on Jumia as well as the amazing gadgets and services from MTN across Lagos, Oyo and Ogun states.
To end what was described as a remarkable year for businesses, MTN launched the ‘Season of Surprises’ campaign in 2014, that had some lucky customers get amazing Jumia vouchers for their loved ones.
Speaking about the growth of Jumia in 2014, its Co-CEO, Nicolas Martin, said: “In 2013, I said to all my staff that we will be 10 times bigger than what we currently are but interestingly, some of them found it really hard to believe. 2014 is over and guess what, we are over 10 times bigger. I am indeed not surprised, our customers have been all we have and we constantly work to provide them with service excellence, making every trip to our store a shopping experience to remember”.
Co-CEO of Africa Internet Group, Jeremy Hodara, said: “We are very pleased to have been given this show of confidence, which acknowledges Jumia’s success. We consider this recognition of the huge potential of e-commerce in Africa and the strong momentum of Jumia across the continent.”
In 2012, Jumia started in a garage in Lagos, before it built up its own logistics infrastructure, a 90,000 square feet warehouse, believed to be the largest in West Africa, as well as its own fleet of drivers, capable of delivering products all around the 36 states in the country including the Federal Capital Territory.
In 2013, Jumia became the first African company to win an award at the World Online Retail Awards in Paris, where it was celebrated as the “Best New Retail Launch” of the year. In 2014, with a commitment to its people and environment, Jumia was nominated at the same event for the ‘Best CSR initiative’ in partnership with the ‘1 Child, 1 Book’ initiative by the Tosin Jegede Foundation.
