From Informal Markets to E-commerce: The Jumia Story

How do you convince Africans — both buyers and sellers — to move from informal outdoor markets to e-commerce? Juliet Anammah of Jumia Group is up for the challenge. Listen to her interview for the Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series to learn how Jumia is breaking down traditional barriers with technology.

Jumiaopen in new window operates in 11 countries. It’s the largest e-commerce platform on the African continent and the first African tech startup to be listed on the NYSE. But e-commerce still represents less than 5% of total retail, which means there is tremendous upside if the company can overcome all the obstacles. Jumia is seeking to do just that by creating a marketplace that connects buyers with sellers, integrates third-party providers, builds trust with buyers, provides training and data analytics to sellers, and engages with regulators. The ultimate goal: to improve lives on the continent using the power of the internet.

As former CEO and now chairwoman of Jumia Nigeria and chief sustainability officer of Jumia Group, Anammahopen in new window has her hands in all of it.

Jumia’s strategy is to deploy existing third-party solutions to handle everything from logistics to delivery to payments, creating a full digital ecosystem. “It’s an asset-light model. You have people who have tricycles and vans and so on, but what was lacking was always the technology to integrate that together and to use the data to make quality decisions.” Anammah says, “The real value you bring to consumers is not limiting them to your own solution — it is actually giving them a platform through which they could use whatever payment method that they have.”

Jumia is breaking down not just trade barriers but gender ones as well. ​​“At least in Nigeria and Kenya, which are key markets, about 51% of our sellers are actually women. It’s a gender agnostic environment. You could be a fashion seller, you could be an electronic seller, and you know you don’t have a lot of physical markets where someone can make those kinds of gender-related decisions that could be forbidden.”

Anammah believes that the power of the platform extends far beyond commerce, driving development and creating jobs across the continent. “In the end, reducing inequality is so critical and is a big part of how we create value. And how we create sustainable improvement in quality of lives on the continent is by asking ourselves: What more can we do?”

Listen to Anammah’s entrepreneurial journey as a guide for your own.