Popular Nigerian online retailer Kasuwa has undergone a rebranding process and has now been renamed Jumia — Jumiacom.ng.
The aim is to see the online retailer become the largest in Africa, says Tunde Kehinde, the firm’s co-founder and managing director.
When it launched a few months ago, Kasuwa created a buzz in Nigeria offering consumers in the West African country a service previously unavailable to them, including online shopping and subsequent delivery within 5 days.
This created a lot of interest and orders from customers resulting to an unprecedented demand for Kasuwa’s goods and many consumers and a number of Nigerian bloggers complained online about delayed deliveries.
Kasuwa seemed to have turned that corner with deliveries within 2 days sometimes being reported. In addition, a great incentive for consumers was that Kasuwa offered free delivery and payment for goods only on delivery.
The founders, Kehinde and Rafael Afaedor, stated their ambitions by saying they aim to extend Jumia beyond Nigeria, cooperating with operations in Egypt and Morocco and making it the largest online store in Africa. They also hope to extend Jumia to other countries across Africa.
Along with the rebranding and new positioning comes a promise from Jumia to offer consumers with:
* New categories of goods and wider selection of products;
* Improved pricing;
* Better customer service.
This new strategic move by the company positions Jumia to potentially become Africa’s Amazon.com. What will be key is to see if they are able to scale the business given the growing demand as well as make various forms of payment including possibly mobile payments available.
