Jumia is preparing to launch an advertising arm, which comes a few weeks after the company had layoffs in the country.
Sam Chappatte, Jumia Kenya’s CEO announced this on his LinkedIn where he was positioning the company to agencies to tap on their huge reach.
“We are launching Jumia Advertising in Kenya to enable agencies & partners to access2-3 million unique visitors per month,” he said on the post. He also said they have done tests where their CTRs (click through rates) and CRs (conversaion rates) “works super well” in a bid to attract agencies and partners advertise with Jumia.
The CEO also made it an opportunity to advertise for a Business Development Lead for Jumia Advertising Services. This shows how serious they are to this venture and they want to reach clients and agencies to tap on their huge market.
2019 was a rough year for Jumia. They started by listing on the New York Stock Exchange which was fun for a bit then the stock tanked due to a damning report. They also ended up being slapped with a class action lawsuit over the IPO.
Later in the year, Jumia started doing major restructuring efforts in how they do business. They closed a number of operations in different countries. They closed in Cameroon, Tanzania and Rwanda. In Kenya, they laid off a percentage of their employees as part of their restructuring efforts.
The move to advertising can be seen as an effort to capitalize on their active user base which is in the millions. They have been operating on a loss and this arm could turn their fortunes around.
