E-Business
Jumia Sees Growth in First Quarter 2022 Results
Jumia Technologies AG (“Jumia” or the “Company”) announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022.
“We kicked off 2022 with very strong growth momentum, closing the first quarter with the highest GMV and Order growth rates of the past 9 quarters, up 27% and 40% year-over-year respectively.
“In parallel with accelerating usage growth, we continued driving platform monetization, with revenue growing by 44% year- over-year, which was also a 9-quarter high,” commented Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec, Co-Chief Executive Officers of Jumia.
“We remain focused on taking the business forward on our path to profitability, driving faster usage growth with improved levels of marketing efficiency. Sales & Advertising expense per Order and as % of GMV decreased sequentially, both reaching their lowest levels in the past 4 quarters, at $2.0 per Order and 7.5% of GMV respectively. We are executing on our strategy with discipline and consistency. Our focus continues to be on making Jumia a compelling destination for the everyday needs of African consumers and a growth engine for sellers and businesses in Africa and beyond.”
First Quarter 2022- Business Highlights
- Growth Acceleration Initiatives
In the first quarter of 2022, we continued executing on our growth acceleration strategy building upon the momentum of the second half of 2021, continuing to scale the business towards profitability.
The key levers of our growth acceleration plan remain consistent:
Sustained marketing investments on a multi-channel basis, to drive consumer awareness, adoption and retention.
Enhanced assortment relevance with a focus on everyday product categories.
Improved pricing and shipping policy.
Improved customer experience and convenience through platform enhancements.
We have outlined below relevant developments in the first quarter of 2022 with respect to each one of these levers.
Marketing
- Brand awareness and consideration are core pillars of our marketing strategy and key to foster customer trust. We were pleased to see Jumia ranked #6 in the 2021 Most Influential Brands survey in Egypt released by Ipsos in March 2022. The ‘Most Influential Brands Survey’ is a global Ipsos initiative, covering 14 markets and close to 800 brands worldwide.
2021 was the second edition of the survey in Egypt with 118 brands assessed across 14 categories. In 2021, Jumia progressed from the 7th to the 6th position of the ranking, maintaining its leadership within the digital and e-commerce category of the survey.
Assortment, pricing and shipping
As part of our efforts to become the digital destination in Africa for everyday needs, we are expanding our assortment in the everyday categories and further enhancing our partnerships with sellers and brands.
Between December 31, 2021 and March 31, 2022, we added almost one million SKUs in the FMCG category, the highest number of SKU adds in this category in the past 8 quarters. We also established pan-African partnerships with each of Coca-Cola and Danone across both our e-commerce and food delivery platforms.
Price competitiveness is a key component of the Jumia value proposition for consumers, particularly in a more challenging macro environment that drives increased consumer price sensitivity. We are upgrading our price benchmarking tool into an automated system covering the full product assortment of Jumia, incorporating data from both online and offline channel checks.
The new system leverages machine learning algorithms to match images and product features enhancing the speed and accuracy of screening and matching. It also allows for real-time price adjustment with dedicated modules for margin optimization.
We are rolling out a free shipping program in select countries allowing consumers living in the main cities to benefit from next-day free shipping on Jumia Express items and basket sizes exceeding a minimum threshold. Jumia Express is an end-to-end logistics service provided to sellers where items are stored in our warehouse and picked and packed by Jumia.
We expect the free shipping initiative to drive consumer adoption and overall usage growth. While we will be foregoing consumer shipping fees – booked under Fulfillment revenue – we expect to better monetize the Jumia Express service – booked under Value Added Service revenue – as we expect sellers to benefit from sales uplift as a result of the free shipping roll-out.
Technology: Platform enhancements
We continue to invest in our technology backbone and front-end projects in particular, to make our platforms even more easy-to-use and engaging.
During the first quarter of 2022, we continued working on an overhaul of our homepage and product pages to simplify navigation and product discovery. Key developments included creating stronger hierarchy of content on the homepage and more informative product pages with larger pictures and additional information such as available stock quantity for flash sales and promotions.
We intend to further enhance user experience with incremental improvements to our product search algorithms and filtering modules, while increasing personalization throughout the stages of the user journey.
- JUMIA PAY UPDATE
In April 2022, JumiaPay was granted the Payment Service Solution Provider (“PSSP”) license by the Central Bank of Nigeria, which allows us to process payments on behalf of third-party businesses in Nigeria.
In parallel, we continued expanding the range of everyday digital and financial services available to consumers on the JumiaPay app.
In Nigeria, JumiaPay is working with the CGAP, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, which is a global partnership of more than 30 leading development organizations, focused on financial inclusion to improve the lives of lower income populations.
As part of this partnership, we are piloting an e-doctor service on the JumiaPay app in collaboration with a third-party service provider, “Meeting Doctors”. The objective of this service is to help workers, sellers and consumers in general access doctors remotely for a monthly subscription fee of around $1. The experiment will help validate the value delivered to our customers and workers and identify a sustainable model to achieve this.
- MONETIZATION UPDATE
Logistics services to third parties
- We are making significant progress on the roll-out of our logistics services to third parties. Packages shipped during the first quarter of 2022 reached a new record of 3.5 million, on behalf of over 1,250 clients, an increase of more than 200 clients compared to the fourth quarter of 2021.
Advertising
Our advertising activity experienced strong momentum during the first quarter of 2022, with 484 advertising campaigns, up 55% year-over-year, on behalf of almost 9,000 advertising clients, a 24% year-over-year increase. Advertising clients during the quarter included high profile brand partners such as Unilever, L’Oréal, Adidas, Danone, Xiaomi, Coca-Cola, Krispy Kreme, Burger King and many more.
We are constantly improving the efficiency of our campaigns to enhance the returns on investment for our advertising clients, through better audience targeting, enhanced personalization and campaign management tools. As a result, advertising campaign performance, measured by the click-through rate on our ads, increased by 56% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2022, supporting sales and return on ad spend for our advertisers.
- IMPACT
Earlier in May 2022, we launched our inaugural ESG report highlighting our sustainability strategy and key themes in alignment with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (“SASB”) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (“UN SDGs”). The first edition of this report has been designed as an overview of our sustainability strategy with a mapping of our current sustainability practices.
Our sustainability strategy is fully aligned with our corporate mission and has three main objectives:
– Living our mission: Our mission to “leverage technology to improve everyday lives” holds sustainability at its core. As we execute on this mission, we create jobs, reduce inequality and positively impact our communities.
– Embedding sustainability in our business operations: We aim to make business decisions and conduct our operations with sustainability guidelines and objectives in mind.
– Amplifying our impact through our ecosystem: Our impact is further amplified as we expand our sustainability practices to our ecosystem of partners and stakeholders.
Our sustainability practices today can be grouped under five material themes outlined below. These themes have been developed in line with our understanding of how our business impacts our key stakeholder groups: consumers, partners, employees, investors and our communities.
Environment
- Minimizing environmental impact through the reduction of carbon emissions, waste and offering customers pre-owned and refurbished goods.
Social
Providing convenience, accessibility and affordability to consumers.
Empowering sellers, partners, and communities by lowering the barriers to entry, providing training, access to funding and participating in initiatives to drive economic and social development.
Building an engaged, inclusive, and diverse workforce.
Governance
- Operating with strong governance and ethical standards.
Paga, a payments and financial services provider for Africa has processed transactions value to the tune of N14trillion in the last 15 years of its existence.
Tayo Oviosu, chief executive officer, Pagatech, said at a media interaction to mark the company’s 15 anniversary that 80 percent of the amount was done in the last five years.
“When we celebrated 10 years of our business that was five years ago, we have grown our transactions values by 7 times, across the three business arms of our operation which includes; consumer payments, platform as-a-services and super App for retailers.
“This has translated into job creation as we have created over 1,000 direct jobs in Ethiopia and in Nigeria and indirect jobs through our agent network to about 100,000 jobs, this is economic empowerment of Nigerians.
“Our desire is giving people financial freedom and making life possible for them and impacting on our community. We are really proud of our economic achievements and we are making sure that our customers get the best experience.
“We are super excited about what the future holds for our business. Our vision is a world where cash does not exist anymore. We ensure that our customers’ money is safe by complying with the highest global security standards.
“Our focus is on helping both consumers and sellers pay, get paid, and access financial services. We do this directly; and through our Platform-as-a-Service, which enables other third parties to leverage the deep infrastructure we have built for endless possibilities.
Oviosu, further explained the three business lines Paga has transformed into from a mobile money operator from inception to a financial services provider includes; Consumer payment: where anyone can open a Paga account from any type of phone, by download Paga App from Apple or android store or dial *242# from any type of phone device.
“With Paga app, you can fund the account, make payments and also have a physical Visa card or a virtual Visa card on the account. This gives you significant convenience over other bank accounts we have in the market today.
You can send money into that account from any bank account or walk into any bank branch to fund the account. You can as well go to any agent and fund or make transactions from the account,” he said.
He added that when he started the business 15 years ago, there was no infrastructure, “we had to build the required infrastructure to support the business. Two years ago, we opened our infrastructure to allow other technology companies to use it for their own business. We called this Platform as a Service. With Platform as a service we are serving 150 businesses who are using our infrastructure to execute their own businesses.
“The third arm of our business is what we called Doroki this a different brand which is super App for retail business. If you are a supermarket you use it to manage your inventory among others. This is the youngest arm of our business” he noted.
Dr John Asein, director-general, Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), has said that the federal government is taking steps to finalise its National Intellectual Property (IP) Policy and Strategy for the country.
Asein disclosed this on Friday while commemorating the 2024 World Intellectual Property Day with the theme “IP and the SDGs: Building Our Common Future with Innovation and Creativity’’ in Abuja.
The that the Day is observed every April 26 to celebrate the importance of intellectual property (IP) rights to encourage innovation and creativity.
The director-general was represented by Mr Emeka Ogbonna, director of Legal.
NCC boss said the policy would serve as a blueprint for a more efficient modern and responsive legal and administrative framework for the country to leverage on its creative and innovative potential.
He said that the day underscored the power of innovation and creativity in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and shaping a sustainable and inclusive future for humanity.
According to him, the SDGs represent a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all by the year 2030.
“IP rights play a pivotal role in fostering innovation, creativity, and technological advancements. They provide the framework that encourages men and women to develop new solutions that address global challenges.
“It is the lynchpin for incentivising the use of creative and innovative ideas to solve many of the challenges that confront humanity.
“This year’s World IP Day reminds us that intellectual property can be a powerful tool for social, economic, and environmental development.
“It encourages individuals, businesses, and governments to leverage IP rights to drive innovation, create jobs, and build resilient communities.
“By aligning our intellectual property policies and strategies with the objectives of the SDGs, we can accelerate their achievement,’’ NCC boss said.
He said in the spirit of the “Renewed Hope Agenda’’ of the present administration, government had also shown appreciable commitment to the creative industry as a major sector of the economy.
“As one of the agencies responsible for the wholesome development of the creative sector, the Nigerian Copyright Commission will continue to provide the needed institutional, legal and administrative support for the protection, promotion, regulation and enforcement of copyright.
“The commission will pay particular attention to using the copyright system to advance Goal 1 (No poverty); Goal 4 (Quality education); Goal 5 (Gender equality).
“And Goal 8 (Decent and economic growth); Goal 9 (Industry, innovation and infrastructure) and Goal 17 (Partnerships to achieve the goals).
“We are aware that the goals would have to be adapted to fit the peculiar needs of intellectual property which is an intangible asset.’ ’he added.
The director-general, who said that the commission focused on the 17 SDGs to address emerging challenges, called on authors, innovators, users, IP experts and other stakeholders to reflect on the vulnerability of the nation’s fragile knowledge and creative ecosystem.
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and Illmi Children’s Fund (ICF) have trained 100 schoolgirls in digital and Information and Communication Technology skills training.
Mrs. Maryam Augie-Abdulmumin, ICF Executive Director, confirmed this in a statement on Thursday in Lagos.
The graduation followed the training of the schoolgirls in ICF and NITDA’s DIGITGALS 2.0 programme, a collaborative initiative aimed to equip adolescent girls in Abuja with critical digital and ICT skills.
Augie-Abdukmumin said the DIGITGALS 2.0 centred around essential digital literacy, programming fundamentals, digital marketing and communication skills, and cybersecurity awareness.
She added that the girls were equipped with the confidence to compete and excel in a globalised digital economy. The graduation was in commemoration of the 2024 International Girls in ICT Day celebration on April 25.
DIGITGALS 2.0 is in its second phase and empowered 100 senior secondary school girls selected from five government schools in the Federal Capital Territory.
The girls aged between 15 and 18 years were equipped with the knowledge and tools needed to thrive in the digital world and address the growing demand for ICT skills in the 21st century.
Augie-Abdulmumin reiterated the importance of bridging the digital gap in the country starting with the girl-child.
“This graduation ceremony on International Day of Girls in ICT is a powerful symbol of our commitment to closing the digital gender gap.
This programme made possible through our partnership with NITDA, and signifies a crucial step towards bridging the digital gender gap.
It also fostering a future where women are active leaders in the tech industry. This is also an opportunity for these girls to take charge of their own future,”.
Mr Kashifu Abdullahi, the Director-General of NITDA, commended the collaborative efforts of ICF in making the DIGITGALS 2.0 a reality.
According to him, building a diverse and inclusive digital workforce is critical for Nigeria’s success.
“We are proud to collaborate with ICF on DIGITGALS 2.0 to empower these young women to become active participants in the tech industry. This programme showcases the importance of collaborative efforts in bridging the digital gender gap.
These girls have been equipped with essential digital skills, and ICF and NITDA are confident they will become active contributors to Nigeria’s thriving tech landscape,”.
ICF is a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the lives of children, from underprivileged backgrounds, through education, healthcare, technology and entrepreneurship initiatives.
NITDA is a public service institution established in 2007. It functions as the ICT policy implementing arm of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy.
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