Emma Okonji
Jumia, Africa’s e-commerce platform has reiterated its commitment to serve customers better despite market challenges occasioned by the effect of COVID-19 on global businesses.
Aside the impact of COVID-19 on businesses, the buying pattern of Africans is also posing some challenges to e-Commerce business, where many still largely believe in physical market place where they can converge to buy household items and foodstuff, rather than shopping online in today’s digital era.
Former CEO of Jumia, Marek Zmyslowski, said e-Commerce business could be challenging in Africa at the moment, but assured customers of the future prospect of e-Commerce business and promised that Jumia would continue to provide quality services and products for customers, despite the challenging moment.
According to him, the success of Amazon’s story could be regarded as far from a smooth ride.
He explained that the same Amazon that has become a global brand in e-Commerce business today, had its own teething challenges that they later overcame.
He said the media went as far as writing negative stories about Amazon, even though those stories were written by people who claimed to be journalists but without formal journalistic training.
Zmyslowski, therefore assured Nigerians and Africans that with the current business strategies of Jumia, which seek to serve customers better, the e-Commerce company, which currently plays big in the African e-Commerce space would become as big as Amazon in few years time.
According to Zmyslowski, Jumia’s average Short Volume Ratio, which is the number of shares short in a stock divided by the stock’s average daily trading volume, for the last 12 months was around 25 per cent.
Zmyslowski, said the value of the public stock was as result of investors/buyers’ confidence in the company’s future.
Also, the current CEO of Jumia Nigeria, Massimiliano Spalazzi, said: “We are uniquely positioned to step up and be part of Africa’s response strategy in this challenging time.
“We have implemented a ‘Contactless’ delivery option, which eliminates any possibility of physical contact. Convenience, social distancing and cashless measures are woven into one solution to combat the current situation.”
