There are facts to now believe that the African market for e-Commerce is under serious threat of imminent collapse.
In Nigeria for example, there had been gradual drop shoppers’ enthusiasms over e-Commerce outfits and their offerings no matter some firms had been in the habit of laundering their images to the unsuspecting buyers.
Some shoppers argued that their major source of poor confidence in the e-Commerce sector cannot be unconnected with delivery of far more different material (mainly of lower quality) from what was originally seen and ordered online.
It would be recalled that while some outfits had crashed out, others merged to become bigger including Konga.
Rewinding back to 2014, it is important to recall that when Jumia Group opened its Cameroon subsidiary in same year, it promised to make buying items easier for both residents and citizens. Five years on, the group has suspended its e-commerce platform operations in the Central African state after it did same in Gabon, Congo, and Rwanda.
Jumia reportedly shut down in Cameroon as the group believes the operations in the country was not lucrative.
The company’s e-commerce platform consists of its marketplace, which connects sellers with consumers; its logistics service, which enables the shipment and delivery of packages from sellers to consumers; and its payment service, which facilitates transactions among the active participants on its platform in selected markets.
While reacting to the shutdown, Jumia said, “We came to the conclusion that our transactional portal as it is run today is not suitable to the current context in Cameroon.”
Another source told Reuters that Jumia said, “We wanted to see how the business evolved. We can come back, but for now, we’re closing (to have) time to study the market.”
However, the political tension in Cameroon, where citizens have been experiencing uprising for two years, places Jumia in a disadvantageous position. Also, the country’s snail-like economic growth poses a threat to Jumia and other establishments.
