Jumia Nigeria chairwoman, Juliet Anammah, has said that everyday products will be key to the future of e-commerce in Nigeria as the shift is already being observed from customers’ daily purchases.
Speaking on the increasing shift by consumers to groceries shopping, Anammah stated, “An area we want to focus on is the increasing shift from high-value products to everyday products; essentials and consumables. That’s where we are deepening our presence.
“When Jumia released its2021 Africa e-commerce index, the emerging grocery shopping trend caught the attention of many industry observers. Consumables are growing faster than high-value products in some African countries,” she added.
According to the report, the shift to everyday products during COVID-19 is part of a broader economic transformation led by the continent’s young, urban and tech-savvy population. Everyday product categories, including fashion, beauty, and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), accounted for 57 percent of Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in 2020, up from 44 percent in 2019.
Timely delivery sells consumables on e-commerce in developed markets like America. Africa, she said is a peculiar market, and the environment flows into consumers’ expectations. “In our Market, consumers make trade-offs. They are more concerned about the pricing. We’ve also seen the quick and fast expectations coming in as well. But to a large extent, it’s the convenience of buying online and at the best prices. So we want them to buy those items on Jumia and save money,” Anammah said.
It would be recalled that at its inception in Nigeria, e-commerce became a market for best deals and bargains on electronics and gadgets.
Aside from the convenience and comfort of e-commerce, another factor that swayed the tech-savvy community to online shopping was price differentiation that helped save more on purchasing products.
The likes of Jumia sell some high-value products directly from manufacturers to consumers, thus eliminating the price inflation of retail outlets.
A few years into the online shopping culture, fashion and beauty products came in big and have been commanding huge patronage and sales across different shopping platforms.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, subsequent lockdowns, and social distancing which led more Nigerians to explore e-commerce more than usual. Fast-moving consumer goods and groceries got more orders on several shopping platforms and appear to be an integral part of the future of e-commerce on the cards.
For decades, Nigerian Farmers have been losing a huge chunk of farm produce due to inadequate storage and processing facilities. For instance, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said the actual quantity of tomatoes harvested in Nigeria is 1.5million tons, but 700,000 tons are lost to post-harvest bottlenecks.
E-commerce companies are heavy investors in technology, and industry observers are of the view that their investment in groceries sale will, in the long run, improve the storage, processing, and supply chain for farmers.