Jumia signs Wiko mobile onto its platform

French smartphone manufacturer Wiko Mobile has entered into a partnership with online sales platform Jumia to boost its sales as it launched a new model named Wiko Getaway.

The manufacturer said Monday that the collaboration is focused on broadening their market visibility to the larger online community that mainly consists of youth who form part of their clientele base.

Two months back, Microsoft also signed a deal with Jumia to scale up its mobile phones uptake offering the product on discounted price

READ: Microsoft signs phone selling deal with Jumia

“We are targeting the young and trendy generation who want to experience style and performance,” said John Mutwiri, Wiko Mobile's country manager.

The “Wiko Getaway’’ will be retailing at Sh21,000 and online buyers will have access to a free 8 GB memory card.

“We are currently investing heavily in key retail partners across major towns in the country through shop visibility improvement programmes with the focus to popularise our brands,” said Mr Mutwiri. He added that the aim was to introduce affordable models that blend with what the market requires.

READ: Firms look to e-commerce for growth in 2015

Wiko was started on February 2011 by a French entrepreneur Laurent Dahan. Its head office, design and marketing teams are based in Marseille, France.

Last year, the Financial Times reported that Wiko had shipped 26m devices in 2013 to European markets, mostly dual-Sim Android smartphones, and that about 85 per cent of buyers were under 35 years.

Wiko's market strategy is to penetrate countries where Chinese phone manufactures such as Huawei and ZTE have already made inroads as the competition in the mobile phone sector becomes more competitive.

Globally, the mobile phone market has been dominated by giants such as Samsung and Nokia. However, with new entrants like Wiko, Tecno, Obi Mobile and others, the prices of the devices has significantly come down.