The founder of NairaBET, Akin Alabi, has condemned e-commerce company, Jumia, for having his marketing book listed for sale on their platform without seeking his permission.
Sighting the book, ‘Small Business Big Money‘ on Jumia’s website came as a shock to the entrepreneur, as there was no prior agreement with Jumia to sell his book on their online store.
[READ ALSO: REVEALED: This is why Jumia didn’t list in Nigeria]
‘Small Business Big Money‘ was co-written by Jason Njoku, the founder of Iroko TV and was published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform on September 30, 2017. The book went on to become a best seller for the House of Representative member.
Here’s the big deal: Alabi raised questions about Jumia’s business model, posting on his Twitter page that only Roving Heights (Nigeria’s online book store) was authorised to resell the book.
Dear @JumiaNigeria. What’s your mode of operation like? I can’t remember listing my book on your platform. pic.twitter.com/3Td5iV7u1n
— Oloye Akin Alabi (@akinalabi) July 19, 2019
Only @Rovingheights was given the permission to resell.
— Oloye Akin Alabi (@akinalabi) July 19, 2019
When a Jumia sales agent informed Alabi that a distributor could have listed the book on Jumia, he disagreed, stating that only Roving Heights gets his book in bulk.
Also, there’s a disparity in the price of the book, as the unknown vendor slashed the price from N5000 to N2,850. The official market price is N5000 as revealed by checks on Roving Heights’ website.
Is there another culprit? Nairametrics discovered that the book is also being sold on Konga without a vendor name or distributor to ascertain who listed it. Note that Roving Heights, Jumia, and Konga are all online stores. However, as the entrepreneur disclosed, only Roving Heights was permitted to resell the book. But he only condemned Jumia for selling his book without permission, thereby raising questions as to why Konga wasn’t also condemned for doing same.
Jumia’s response to Alabi: The e-commerce company addressed the situation in Akin Alabi’s comment section, stating that, “Jumia serves as a platform where vendors display their products and customers purchase from.
“We are sorry to learn you are not pleased with the listing of your book on our platform. This has been forwarded to the appropriate unit to resolve as soon as possible. Please let us know if you have any other concern.
“Thank you for your patience and understanding. Please be informed that the book has been delisted from our platform. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.”
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Please be informed that the book has been delisted from our platform.
We are sorry for any inconvenience caused.Grace.
— Jumia Nigeria Help (@JumiaNGHelp) July 19, 2019
[READ ALSO: Jumia Travel Founder continues fight against alleged Nigerian detractors]
The grey area: The development raises concerns as to whether Jumia actually verifies the authenticity of products being sold by their third party merchants, prior to listing them on their platforms.
