Description
Jumia, Africa’s first tech Unicorn, is an e-commerce platform connecting sellers and buyers of various products and services across the continent.
Despite its quick and stunning rise to fame Jumia’s stock suffered a spectacular decline reflecting its lackluster financial performance.
By the end of 2019, Jumia had exited three of 14 markets, suspending operations in Tanzania, Cameroon, and Rwanda. A week before its one-year IPO anniversary its original backer dumped its entire 11% stake. By the end of 2022 after continuous poor performance, Jumia announced further service scale backs in Algeria, Ghana, Algeria and Tunisia. Food Delivery closures in Egypt, Ghana, and Senegal were also announced and almost a complete shutdown of its logistics services throughout Africa followed. Massive layoffs were also announced.
We outline in this market research report five lessons we believe may be useful for the “Amazon of Africa” and to all businesses out there – lessons that can be, and should be, learnt from one Chinese bootstrapper – Alibaba.
