Jumia now seeks a slice of online advertising cake

Kenya's leading e-commerce retailer, Jumia has opened up its online platform for corporates to advertise their brands.

The company's CEO Sam Chappatte made the disclosure during the launch of the platform, Jumia Advertising Services (JAS), saying the digital marketing channel for advertisers will increase their reach to millions of users using the platform every month.

"Twenty percent of active internet users in Kenya are on Jumia each month. We know our customers well — what they shop, how much they spend — and can use this to present relevant adverts to them. This can enable our customers to discover relevant products and services," said Mr Chappatte (above), adding that their messages will reach highly targeted segments, right at the moment of purchase.

“We are launching advertising in response to significant demand from agencies and brands. For effective digital marketing campaigns, you need data,” he said.

“This is what is special about our solution - and why leading brands that have been piloting with us over the last months are coming back for more. With operations across 11 countries in Africa, Jumia plans to target users geographically and segment them based on their shopping behaviour at “the most granular level”.

The launch of Jumia Advertising Services is part of the company’s 2020 strategy to increase monetisation and scale up its business amid reports of staff layoff at its Kenyan arm.

In November last year, the firm posted third-quarter revenue growth of 19 percent to Sh4.45 billion (€40 million) and increased its active customer base by 56 percent to 5.5 million from 3.5 million over the same period a year ago.

Jumia’s Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) — the total amount of goods sold over the period — grew by 39 percent to Sh30.6 billlion (€275 million).