Pascal Oparada
Ordinarily, the outbreak of COVID-19 across the globe should boost online sales as more and more people self-isolate and work from home.
Many companies have urged their non-essential staff to work remotely to avoid being exposed to the dreaded Coronavirus.
This would have spurred online markets to make huge gains as people who self isolate would rather order via online stores than go out to buy from physical stores to avoid being infected.
That is not the case as checks by this reporter confirm that rather than witness an upsurge in sales by top online stores in Nigeria, the effect of coronavirus has taken its toll on e-commerce in the country.
Metrics from Google trends tracked sales by two of Nigeria’s leading online stores, Jumia and Konga in the last 90 days, since the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19.
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Jumia, which is considered Africa’s Amazon, has rather been hobbled by the Coronavirus outbreak.
It’s last quarter earnings show that the African e-commerce giant has seen a drop in sales and is not close to making profits.
The trajectory of the trend on Jumia is that it has closed shops in some other African countries.
It has closed shops in Tanzania, Rwanda and Cameron in order to optimise markets and focus on markets that offer higher patronage.
Even though the number of orders by customers increased by 49%, year on year, active customers topped by 6.1 million during the period. This was mostly buoyed by Black Friday sales.
The reason for Jumia’s sudden slide is not far-fetched. It saw a drop in merchandise sales by three per cent as sales of phones and consumer electronics dipped on the platform.
Most of the goods by online stores in Nigeria come from China where the Coronavirus began. Shops and factories closed in China to curtail further spread of COBID-19.
As China seeks to restart its economy following a drop in new infection cases, the e-commerce business in Nigeria and Africa would breathe sighs of relief.
“We are starting to face some challenges to fulfill our cross border sales,” Jumia CEO Sacha Poignonnec said.
Nigeria’s second leader in e-commerce, Konga is not faring any better.
Metrics from Google Trends show that Konga’s sales have also dropped significantly by 3 per cent.
Orders have slowed since the outbreak in China and parts of the world.
Amazon is reportedly recruiting 1,000 new staff to help with the demand by online shoppers. It is estimated that orders have increased exponentially in the U.S. and other advanced economies and online stores are the better for it.
The same was expected to be replicated in Nigeria and Africa, but so far, the African market is too jittery to respond.
