Ecommerce firm Jumia has ceased operations in Algeria, according to its full-year 2025 financial report, after the country accounted for about 2% of the company’s gross merchandise value (GMV) last year.
The shutdown, marks another step in the African eCommerce company’s push to streamline its footprint and focus on markets with clearer paths to profitability.
Algeria’s shutdown leaves Egypt and Morocco as Jumia’s remaining North African markets, following earlier exits from Tunisia and South Africa.
Jumia said the decision would weigh on short-term performance but forms part of a broader geographic recalibration designed to improve operational efficiency and concentrate resources on higher-growth, higher-margin markets.
However, there has been growing competition from Chinese platforms such as Temu and Shein, which have cheap Chinese imports, are spending heavily on marketing and are expanding rapidly across Africa.
Temu entered the Nigerian market in 2024 with aggressive promotions and cross-border fulfilment steadily gaining significant marketshare and a year later, Temu’s footprint grew significantly, taking on several regions initially served by Jumia and its competitors.
In South Africa, Temu and Shein reportedly account for 37.1% of the country’s sales in the clothing, textiles, footwear and leather, categories and these is said to have led to Jumia exiting South Africa towards the end of 2024.
Without opportunity for scale and significant margins, the pressure was too high on Jumia leading it to launch a sourcing office in Yiwu, China, to bolster its direct imports, something Temua nd Shein were enjoying.
Jumia had its eye on being Africa’s Amazon but with the entry of new and cheaper players, it’s dream to become a cross-border eCommerce platform is becoming elusive. It’s withdrawal in Algeria underscores its shift from expansion-led growth to market consolidation and sustainable profitability as the eCommerce market gets crowded.
In December 2023, Jumia discontinued its food delivery service, Jumia Food in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Ivory Coast to focus on profitability. In 2022 it discontinued the food delivery operations in Egypt, Ghana and Senegal and suspended logistics- arm in all markets except Nigeria, Morocco and Ivory Coast.
The firm also halted Jumia Prime and scaled back first-party groceries in Algeria, Ghana, Senegal and Tunisia to help it cut losses and achieve profitability in its core physical goods business and JumiaPay.
“The more we focus on our physical goods business, the more we realize that there is huge potential for Jumia to grow, with a path to profitability,” Dufay said at the time. “We must take the right decision and fully focus our management, our teams and our capital resources to go after this opportunity.”