I’m sure most of us do not even know what or when Black Friday is, let alone how it came about… Let us fill you in on the info so that you can join in on the Jumia Black Friday Bandwagon.
Black Friday is always the day after Thanksgiving. It’s an informal name from the United States, for the fourth Thursday of November, which has been regarded as the beginning of the country’s Christmas shopping season since 1952, although the term “Black Friday” did not become widely recognised or used until the early 2000s. What happens on this day is that most major retailers open very early, as early as overnight hours, and offer promotional sales. But Black Friday is not an official holiday.
In 2018, Black Friday will be on Friday 23th November, 2018. However, here in Kenya Every Friday is Black Friday with Jumia in November.
Just in case you didn’t know, Jumia is currently the top downloaded App on Playstore Kenya, thanks to Black Friday. This happened when Jumia announced two weeks ago that it would be driving app only deals to its customers and so this pushed people to download the app instead of visiting the website directly.
So do not wait for November 23th to start your shopping because you’re assuming that many sales will start on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday.
Jumia Black Friday is different from all the others marked by other retailers because it runs for one month, 2nd – 30th November, with up to 70% discount on 3.5M products.
Something unique about Jumia’s Black Friday is that there are:-
- 10 Mega Flash Sales every two hours with limited stock on all Fridays,
- 5 Treasure Hunts every day,
- 7 flash sales daily and
- free vouchers to top up shopping
Jumia expects 12M visits to the site because shoppers are guaranteed on the best prices for items they look to buy since there are over 3.5M products to choose from. Mind you, from their 10,000 vendors online, the products are of the highest choice online and offline.
Jumia Black Friday went Live on Thursday night at 12AM with a great improvement on traffic to the site compared to last year. They had 6 times more traffic as compared to last year’s Black Friday.
Their day 1 sales were 2X bigger than last year’s launch day – with strong performances in Appliances, TVs, Phones and Groceries. Plus there was a huge surge on the Jumia App for App only deals where by it’s cheaper to shop with your phone. This is because you use less data as compared to using laptops.
But I’m sure we are all wondering how Jumia comes up with the big discounts?! Well, their vendors absorb price reduction because of expected volumes.
Both the Vendors and the Jumia Logistics teams are better prepared for the massive orders that will be made during this period thanks to their training department. Plus there is a shorter return and refund process, thus lesser complaints come up as vendors have upped their game.
Sales from Black Friday can contribute to the betterment of e-commerce in Kenya because the Increase penetration on awareness causes more visits and sales, more confidence in online transactions, talkability, and growth of products thus giving people a wider choice online.
Offline retailers are Jumia’s main competition because Kenyans still embrace brick and mortar – touch and feel, while Jumia offers convenience, quality and choice to drive offline traffic to online and match the same offline experience.
Cash on delivery has been a big factor in beating offline retailers for Jumia because of trust issues. (I’ve been there, you really want to buy a pair of shoes, but you aren’t sure of the material, make and feel, so you’d rather not pay before seeing them and better yet trying them on). Meaning, the ecommerce pie is still small and Jumia’s need is to grow the pie first.
As a Jumia Customer some of the surprises to expect this Black Friday period are:
- Jumia could sell more Mbuzi for 1000 bob you never know!
- Unga for 20 bob! (Remember, Millers are set to increase prices soon)
- Free orders on coke; to try Jumia for Free (new customers can order coke for one bob, with free delivery to help them gain online trust, cool huh!)
And you have no need worry about online security in terms of payments, Jumia knows that Kenyans prefer cash on payment + Mpesa of course which is the highest used mode of payment. Jumia delivers, you pay. In addition to that, Jumia have partnered with Visa for free delivery and up to Kes.250.00 off on visa payments.
To avoid disappointment this Black Friday, customers are advised to:
- Download the Jumia App to access app-only deals and vouchers
- Visit Jumia site daily at 9AM check out the deals of the day. Especially during the biggest days – each Friday of November!
- Pay Jumia a visit Jumia’s offline stores in Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret, Nakuru & Kisumu for any enquiries and get a free voucher
- Or place your orders over the phone by calling 0711011011