The truth never stays hidden for long! The biggest news story to hit the internet is starting to catch on and is now spreading like wild fire! Vanguard had broken it yesterday, the latest newspapers to put their microscope on the issue of competitive prices are The Guardian and Business Day. Across all three platforms, the underlying conclusion remains the same; Jumia offers the best prices!
In news pieces done by Gbenga Salau of The Guardian, Tonia Diyan of The Nation and Daniel Obi of Business Day, there is a confirmation to the story initially done by Jonah of the Vanguard yesterday! In Gbenga Salau’s of The Guardian words, ‘One organization which has adopted pricing as a way to wade off competition and probably remain as the market leader in its category is Jumia.com. A check on some of the prices of products by Jumia showed a competitive pricing edge over other platforms, even with international online retailers’.
From the looks of it, The Guardian did not only compare prices, they also took to the streets to gather public opinion. Omotolani Johnson who got interviewed said, ‘These days I do not bother to check the price of goods on other online platforms because I am rest assured that I will be getting the a better price compared with other platforms and the quality of the goods is not in doubt’. Business Day also did their research and in a phone interview with Oluwarotimi, an HR practitioner, he said although he had not brought from Jumia Nigeria, his experience with Jumia Kenya shows that the online store sells the same products at cheaper rates.
Esther Chukwuma, who got interviewed by The Nation, said ”I saw a Lenovo laptop for N52, 499 on Jumia. I didn’t have the time to do a price check with an offline store, so I called an old retail customer who confirmed that I can buy same laptop for N60,000, but that I could pay N58,000 if I was ready with my cash. Immediately, I decided to buy online from Jumia. I have since used my laptop for a year, eight months and I have not had reason to take it for repairs.”
Just like yesterday, we have also decided to take an in-depth look on this issue of price discrepancies. Here are some results of what was found:
Samsung Galaxy Alpha Black – N82,500 on Jumia | Other Online Stores – N89,000
Sony DAV-TZ715 DVD Home Theatre System – N59,495 on Jumia | Other Online stores – Over N70,000
Emel Handmixer. – N2,075 on Jumia | Other Online Stores – Over N4000
Samsung Galaxy Ace 4 Lite – N15,800 on Jumia | Other Online Stores – N19,200
Samsung 48 inch UA48H5100 – N95,000 on Jumia | Other Online Stores – N152,000
Lenovo A10 Mini Touch10.1-Inch Android Netbook – N32,995 on Jumia | Other Online Stores – Over N38,000
Nikon Coolpix S2800 N14,900 on Jumia | Other Online Stores – N16,200
Emel Electric Over 20ltrs – N7,375 on Jumia | Other Online Stores – Over N12,000
Citizen 1.3kva Elite Electric Generator – N28,120 on Jumia | Other Online Stores – N31,500
JVC 32 inch LT-32N330A HD LED TV – N43,490 on Jumia | Other Online Stores – 56,400
This is my definition of fine margins.
Is Jumia using pricing, affordability to drive market leadership as the article suggests? Yes. Is Jumia compromising on the quality of products in other to achieve this? Most certainly not! From a logical point of view, it is somewhat impossible to compromise on quality when you source your items directly from the manufacturers. Do not compromise on price! Go for quality! Go for the best price! Go for Jumia!
This article was written by Yemi Kuti