Nigeria is at the center of Jumia’s ongoing recovery, with the e-commerce company reporting a 30% year-on-year increase in physical goods orders and a 43% rise in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in the country.
This is according to the company’s latest performance update, highlighting a strong bounce-back following the macroeconomic and currency volatility that rocked the Nigerian market in 2024.
Jumia credits its localized business model and infrastructure for its growing dominance in a market where several global competitors are now scaling back operations.
What they are saying
Jumia’s management emphasized that Nigeria’s performance is a reflection of the company’s adaptation to the realities of the African market.
- “We continue to see a pullback from certain global entrants in some markets like Nigeria, while we steadily gain local market share,” the company said, adding that its “localized operating model” built on strong vendor relationships, cost-effective logistics, and deep market understanding has become a critical competitive edge.
Executives noted that many global platforms have reduced marketing investment and raised prices, signs that the market is proving too challenging to operate at scale.
In contrast, Jumia has found ways to adapt and thrive, tailoring its operations to local customer needs.
- “We’ve adapted our playbook… we can do payment and delivery, which foreign platforms cannot do,” the company said, highlighting its on-the-ground customer service as a key differentiator in markets where trust in e-commerce is still fragile.
Jumia also pointed to its extensive logistics network as a major advantage, particularly in Nigeria, where the company claims to run the most robust distribution system.
This network, Jumia said, is not being shared with global rivals, who are left working with smaller third-party logistics providers at higher cost and lower efficiency.
More on Jumia’s Nigerian strategy
Jumia’s Nigerian expansion strategy has been aggressive over the past 18 months. The company said it has opened operations in hundreds of new cities, massively increasing its addressable market.
Much of this growth has taken place in eastern and western Nigeria, and more recently in the north. Notably, Jumia launched delivery routes into previously unreached northern cities such as Sokoto and Maiduguri, both major urban centers with large untapped customer bases.
While Côte d’Ivoire remains the country with the densest Jumia network due to its early start in 2016, Nigeria is quickly catching up.
The company only began its current expansion push in Nigeria around mid-2023, signaling that there is still considerable room for growth. “We have big plans to further expand in countries like Nigeria… especially into the north,” Jumia said, pointing to collaborations with local partners as key to executing this expansion.
Jumia also highlighted its vendor strategy as another area where it outcompetes global platforms. With most of its competitive product assortment sourced through Chinese vendors, the company believes it is now able to compete on price and product variety with global e-commerce brands.
What you should know
Jumia has faced several challenges in recent years, including losses and executive turnover, but has been undergoing a strategic reset aimed at achieving profitability.
- Its latest numbers suggest those efforts are bearing fruit, particularly in Nigeria.
- Nigeria remains one of Africa’s largest e-commerce markets by potential, given its population size, increasing internet penetration, and growing urbanization.
- However, issues such as inflation, naira devaluation, and security concerns remain key obstacles to growth.
- Global players such as Amazon have not yet made a significant entry into Nigeria, while others like Shopify and Alibaba have mostly limited their presence to cross-border facilitation rather than full-scale operations.
This gives Jumia a window of opportunity to entrench its position.
For more context, Nairametrics has previously reported on Jumia’s shifting strategy and the challenges facing the e-commerce sector in Nigeria.
