Jumia to host biggest Black Friday event

Jumia Ghana says users of its e-commerce platform will enjoy the best deals in various categories during this year’s Black Friday event, scheduled to be run from 24th November to 8th December, 2017.

Mr Ore Odusanya, Managing Director of Jumia Ghana, said the Black Friday Event was the biggest by default, the biggest sale for most e-commerce businesses and Jumia expected to triple its sales that week.

Last year, the sale run for one week but will run for two weeks this year, in a bid to give consumers more options.

The company had seen high growth in the last six months due to an increased growth on consumers, offering them the best and biggest brands at the best prices, and had been able to maintain its black Friday sale levels after last year’s event.

He was speaking at a press interaction with Jumia’s Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director in Accra.

“Ghanaians should get ready, not only for the widest range of products, or deals, but at the best prices. Make you save your money and start stocking your mobile money accounts for the best deals on Black Friday” he advised customers, adding that discounts will go up as high as 75 percent this year.

Mr Odusanya said there will be new deals every day, in different categories during the two-week campaign.

On 24th November, the global Black Friday, the sale will be in all categories, after which it will be one category per day; men’s fashion on 25th, women’s fashion on 26th, Cyber Monday on 27th, mobile phones on 28th, Computers on 29th, TVs and appliances on 30th, and so on till the 8th of December.

He said Jumia Ghana recognised the void of trust in e-commerce in Ghana and had put in place two measures to address this. Customers who buy on Jumia, he explained, have the option of paying cash on delivery where they are able to see the products they are buying and either accept or reject it.

They also have a seven-day return policy on the products.

Jumia has also worked with partner MTN to set up and integrate its mobile money platform where customers can pay for their products safely and also partnered with Ghana Post for out-of-Accra deliveries.

Mr Massimiliano Spalazzi, Jumia Africa CEO, said Jumia began operations in Ghana to the lack of a strong offline retail presence.

While one retail outlet in the United States served about 380 people, one outlet in Africa served on average 60,000 people, thus e-commerce allows African countries to leapfrog to online purchasing.

“This is a huge opportunity we are seeing across is happening across the countries where we operate,” he said, adding that Africa demographic of young people, who are tech savvy, also serve an opportunity for e-commerce.

He said technology was a way to grow faster any business that you can open offline and Jumia, across all its services, allowed entrepreneurs to build faster what they would take more time, effort and money to build offline.

“We simply provide the reach to all customers that are available in Africa,” he stated.

Mr Spalazzi said the company had seen an increase in the online orders in Ghana in the last five months, which indicated the country will grow extremely fast and become one of the leading countries in the Jumia portfolio.