Black Friday is a concept that originated in the United States, but the yearly retail fever has had a popularity boom across Africa in recent years, with customers moving to take advantage of the best deals that retailers have available.
Jumia, which is a marketplace with its focus placed on Africa quickly grabbed this opportunity when it first introduced the Black Friday event about nine years ago across its markets in Africa, focusing mainly on Egypt and Cairo which are the company’s top two cities when considering volume of orders.
Since its inception, the company has witnessed staggering levels of success with the event, and company data reveals that the love which consumers have for Black Friday has been increasing across the continent every year.
During the 2020 Black Friday event, the top sellers on the Jumia platform saw a 141% year-on-year increase in the amount of items sold, with one out of three clicks on average being a new customer. The company also said that it witnessed an increase in brand appetite across every one of Jumia’s 10 markets during last year’s sale, which lasted every Friday in November.
The trend is expected to continue this year’s version of Jumia’s Black Friday, as it is running from November 5 until November 30.
The company which is based in Nigeria has entered into partnerships with major brands like Adidas, HP, Unilever and Diageo, as well as with thousands of sellers in order to provide consumers the best deals on a very wide range of products.
The CEO of Jumia Nigeria, Massimiliano Spalazzi told Lagos-based Vanguard that the Black Friday programme has been a success every year, and is the biggest sale of the year.
He also stated that the 2021 Black Friday campaign will place focus on strengthening the company’s position as a brand within the African market, and providing support to the sellers.
