Sugar the most ordered commodity by Kenyans on Jumia
Kenyans ordered a 2kg pack of sugar more than any other commodity on Jumia, a report by the e-commerce platform indicates, highlighting the importance of the product in the household.
At the same time, Nigerians are said to have sought to purchase power banks more than anything else on the same platform, a move that indicates the challenges the residents of the West African nation have in accessing electricity.
On average, Nigerians have to endure for at least 10 hours without electricity supply.
Besides the sugar and power banks, shopping for essentials such as foodstuff, fashion, and beauty products saw Jumia’s total sales value of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods grow by 13 percentage points last year, from 44 percent in 2019.
A report by the e-commerce platform attributed the demand to the shift to stay-at-home restrictions that fueled the need for online shopping as well as the youthful population and the increasing smartphone and internet penetration across the continent.
Smartphones contributed 75 percent of the traffic to the e-commerce site.
Jumia CEO Sam Chappate said that the change in consumer behavior attributed it to the pandemic, where most Kenyans embraced the idea of shopping online.
“Online grocery shopping has lagged in other categories historically in Kenya. The pandemic has shifted consumer behavior. Kenyans are now increasingly considering online shopping for their everyday needs – seeking convenience and competitive prices. This is an important shift for the e-commerce industry because it allows us to become a more relevant service & bigger part of everyday life for Kenyans,” he explained.
The increase in orders for day-to-day products on Jumia can also be attributed to the expansion conducted by the e-commerce platform, where it extended retail services to rural areas in Kenya and doubled the number of pick-up stations countrywide to more than 1,000 today.