Nigeria is at the center of Jumia’s ongoing recovery, with the e-commerce company reporting a 30% year-on-year increase in physical goods orders and a 43% rise in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in the country.

This is according to the company’s latest performance update, highlighting a strong bounce-back following the macroeconomic and currency volatility that rocked the Nigerian market in 2024.

Jumia credits its localized business model and infrastructure for its growing dominance in a market where several global competitors are now scaling back operations.

Jumia’s management emphasized that Nigeria’s performance is a reflection of the company’s adaptation to the realities of the African market.

Executives noted that many global platforms have reduced marketing investment and raised prices, signs that the market is proving too challenging to operate at scale.

In contrast, Jumia has found ways to adapt and thrive, tailoring its operations to local customer needs.

Jumia also pointed to its extensive logistics network as a major advantage, particularly in Nigeria, where the company claims to run the most robust distribution system.

This network, Jumia said, is not being shared with global rivals, who are left working with smaller third-party logistics providers at higher cost and lower efficiency.

Jumia’s Nigerian expansion strategy has been aggressive over the past 18 months. The company said it has opened operations in hundreds of new cities, massively increasing its addressable market.

Much of this growth has taken place in eastern and western Nigeria, and more recently in the north. Notably, Jumia launched delivery routes into previously unreached northern cities such as Sokoto and Maiduguri, both major urban centers with large untapped customer bases.

While Côte d’Ivoire remains the country with the densest Jumia network due to its early start in 2016, Nigeria is quickly catching up.

The company only began its current expansion push in Nigeria around mid-2023, signaling that there is still considerable room for growth. “We have big plans to further expand in countries like Nigeria… especially into the north,” Jumia said, pointing to collaborations with local partners as key to executing this expansion.

Jumia also highlighted its vendor strategy as another area where it outcompetes global platforms. With most of its competitive product assortment sourced through Chinese vendors, the company believes it is now able to compete on price and product variety with global e-commerce brands.

Jumia has faced several challenges in recent years, including losses and executive turnover, but has been undergoing a strategic reset aimed at achieving profitability.

This gives Jumia a window of opportunity to entrench its position.

For more context, Naijaonpoint has previously reported on Jumia’s shifting strategy and the challenges facing the e-commerce sector in Nigeria.