By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The 2016 edition of Jumia Black Friday may have come and gone, but the excitement and taste of success still lingers for the sellers, sales agents and community of entrepreneurs who experienced impressive sales and positive customer feedback during the annual sales event.
During the 12 days of Jumia Black Friday, about 8 million visitors visited Jumia Nigeria’s website to partake in its sales.
Out of the hundreds of thousands of orders placed during the Jumia Black Friday, 75 percent of orders had shipped by Friday November 25th.
More than 13,000 sellers on the Jumia platform participated in Jumia Black Friday offering up to 70 percent discounts. This was in addition to the major ‘hero deals’ sponsored by key partners like Binatone, Polystar, HP, Innjoo, Infinix, Etihad and MTN.
“This year’s Jumia Black Friday was a strong showing and collective effort,” said Juliet Anammah, Jumia Nigeria CEO. “We’re particularly excited about the sellers and sales agents who pleasantly reported a big jump in sales and increased incomes.”
Andrew Ewona, the owner of Renda Clothing, is one of the more than 13,000 sellers who participated in Jumia Black Friday by offering discounts on a wide selection of products.
“I sold my items between 20–40 percent discount, and my orders increased by 150 percent during Black Friday,” Ewona said of Renda clothing which specializes in female clothing.
Jumia sellers like Ewona are small entrepreneurs, suppliers and manufacturers who sell their products on the Jumia website to reach larger audiences and increase their incomes: once a customer places an order, they drop off the products at Jumia warehouses to be quality checked and shipped to customers.
“I got feedback that customers were happy with my products and a major factor I think is because of the rigorous quality checks Jumia conducts,” Ewona said who has been on the Jumia platform for four months.
Omowunmi Adebayo, a J-Force Talent Manager, reported a 500 percent increase in sales revenue among her team of independent sales agents, also known as JForce agents.
“During Black Friday, I had sales agents who attested to the fact that Jumia had items that were more than 50 percent cheaper than what they’ll get in the market,” Adebayo reported.
“We had a lot of customers purchase HP latops, InnJoo Max 3, a person bought 200 pieces of Tecno L8. According to [the agent], she got the Tecno L8 15% cheaper than what we will get in the market.”
The Jumia J-Force programme has empowered 45,000 agents who have received sales training and make a living selling products to customers, families, friends and colleagues.
Jumia Nigeria CEO, Juliet Anammah attested to this as narrated how all the teams across company joined the warehouse team from Monday to Sunday, picking, checking and packing the thousands of orders customers placed. “All hands were on deck to make sure we delivered to our customers more discounts and more convenience for a successful 2016 Black Friday experience.”
Dipo Olowookere 
Aduragbemi Omiyale