JUMIA has launched its mobile Application in Nigeria, Morocco, Ivory Coast and Kenya, available for all Android phones, as part of its commitment to make online shopping even easier and totally flexible as well as enforce mobile-commerce in Africa.
The app will offer international known brands and product assortment, fast and intuitive navigation, simple, flexible and secure online payment, push notifications for exclusive updates on new arrivals and special sales, a statement form the company said.
According to statistics gathered by the Nigerian Communication Commission there are 120,362,218 mobile subscribers (78 per cent of population) and 48,165,033 smart phone users in Nigeria (based on active internet subscriptions in June 2013). Similar mobile subscription numbers can be found in in Kenya (29.8 Mio mobile subscribers, 69 per cent of population), Ivory Coast (18 Mio, 75 per cent of population) and Morocco (38.3 Mio mobile subscribers, 120 per cent – more subscribers than people living in the country).
This boost has led to m-commerce explosion in Africa – the number of users who access the internet via their phones- is growing rapidly and leapfrogging the traditional desktop users in Africa
Co-CEO Africa Internet Holding, Jeremy Hodara, said: “For JUMIA it’s immensely important to also offer a mobile solution to our customers. M-commerce is not just an additional channel, but might be the entry point to gaining many more customers in a market where landlines are not always 100 per cent stable.
“The smartphone penetration rate in sub Saharan Africa has increased immensely over the last years and will continue do so. JUMIA seizes this enormous opportunity with the best m-commerce solution on the market.”
In addition to the growing market penetration of smartphones in Africa, Nigeria is said to be among the ten fastest growing economies worldwide, according to The Economist. The World Bank predicts that sub-Saharan marketplaces will expand by 5.1% in 2014 and by 5.2 per cent in 2015.
Co-CEO Africa Internet Holding, Sacha Poignonnec, also added: “In the time of just one year since its inception, JUMIA has excelled at offering its customers a wide collection of high-quality products. JUMIA greatly facilitated online shipping in Africa. We strive to push retail on the whole continent, and the addition of an m-commerce solution is yet another way of making it more convenient for our customers.”