I visited Jumia office at Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja last week Thursday, 20th February 2014, and had my mouth wide open at the growth rate of ecommerce business in Nigeria; a warehouse the size of a football stadium, over 500 smart, young and agile employees, continuous in and out movement of delivery vans and motorbikes, all happening right here in Lagos.
What surprised me most was that; when I got to the office around 1:00pm, I noticed most part of the warehouse was occupied with items. By the time I was leaving at 4:30pm, a sizable part of the warehouse was already empty. What?
“Do you mean all those items have been sold within this few hours?” I asked Uyi, the staff I was with. “This is how we go every day. Goods come in and go”, he replied. According to him, the company recently moved to this new location, as its previous location at Lekki could not accommodate the need for expansion.
It’s simply amazing.
Jumia is an online retail store that sells a variety of items; from mobile phones, laptops, and fashion items to children toys. Nigerians can shop and order any item on Jumia website and has it delivered to any location in the country. As a customer, you can decide to pay for the goods online using your bank’s ATM card or you pay on delivery of ordered item(s).
MTN acquired 33.3% of Jumia in 2013, owning one third of the parent company (Africa Internet Holding) equally with two other investors; Millicom (33.3%), and Rocket Internet (33.3%). This puts online shopping into safer hands, and gradually closing the gap of distrust between consumers and online businesses.
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According to Medessy Enterprises Limited, owner of online retail store gidimall.com, ecommerce industry in Nigeria is worth about 255 billion naira ($1.56 million USD) annually; growing at a rate of 25% every year.
What this means is that Nigerians spent as much as 255 billion naira in 2013 purchasing goods and transacting business online, and are expected to spend 318.75 billion naira by the end of 2014.
Interestingly, the trend is just getting started. This figure is expected to grow even rapidly as more and more Nigerians look to the internet to find the best deals on products and services.
With an estimate of 55 million Nigerians accessing the internet on the go, looking to find goods and make purchases online, it’s not hard to see the massive opportunity in ecommerce – online retail business.
If you are reading this, it’s likely you don’t have the wherewithal to start an online retail store like Jumia or Konga. But that does not mean you are exempted from hustling out a fair share of the billions of naira Nigerians spend shopping online annually.
If you are ready to start cutting your share of the ecommerce cake, you don’t need to invest a dime to start making money off this lucrative business opportunity. If you can reach a sizable number of people online via Facebook, Twitter, Google+, blog or website, you are already qualified.
Jumia Nigeria is offering an affiliate partnership program to enable Nigerian students, graduates, entrepreneurs and professionals make money and even build their own business from its already established online store.
All you have to do is register to become an affiliate partner, get a new account for free and start sharing your unique links to products on Jumia on your blog, Facebook, twitter or Google+.
If you spend time on social media, this is an opportunity for you to start making productive use of your time. Making money off your time on Facebook and twitter isn’t such a bad idea, is it?
Once you register for the partnership program, you will get a unique id to track everyone you send to the online store through your social media profile or page, or through your website or blog. You will get a unique link to every product on the store.
For instance, if you find a wristwatch you like and want to recommend it to your Facebook friends, you can share your unique link to that particular product and you’ll be paid a percentage when they make purchase.
The really interesting part is that, if someone clicks on your unique link and makes a purchase within the next 30 days, you still get paid. What this means is that if you tell your friends about that wristwatch you love and they visit the site without making a purchase, you still have a chance to make money if they decide to come back 29 days later to buy.
This is really a lucrative business for anyone with access to the internet.
There is no limit to how much you can earn. The more people you send to the online store and the more they make a purchase, the more money you’ll make.
Nigeria is a consumer society. People are always looking for something to buy. Take that opportunity and start cutting your own share of the 318 billion naira to be spent in 2014.
About Jumia
JUMIA is Africa’s leading online shopping destination. Customers across the continent can shop the widest assortment of quality products at affordable prices – offering everything from fashion, consumer electronics, home appliances to beauty products. JUMIA operates in five countries including Nigeria, Morocco, Egypt, Kenya and Ivory Coast.
This post was last modified on March 2, 2017 5:52 pm