Jumia has recently announced its fourth quarter and full year 2020 results and it has some key insights about the company.
The company paints Q4 2020 as a successful quarter. Gross profit increased by 12% year over year to reach €27.9 million. Gross Merchant Value (GMV) was €231.1 million which was a 23% increase quarter on quarter thanks to Black Friday but was down 21% year on year. Gross profit after fulfillment was a record €8.4 million compared to €1.0 million in Q4 2019. Their costs for Q4 were €10.2 million (decrease of 34% YoY) and General and Administrative costs were €21.8 million (36% decrease YoY).
Jumia also announced that they had 6.8 million active customers, an increase of 12% YoY and 8.1 million orders which was down 3% YoY in Q4 2020
However, Jumia still registered a loss. In Q4 2020, they made a loss of €46.932 million and a consolidated loss of €160.958 million for the year 2020. The total loss in 2020 was down from the €227.065 million posted in 2019 which is a step in the right direction for the company. They also mentioned that their Cancellations, Failed Deliveries and Returns (CFDR) as a percentage of GMV fell from 30% to 25%.
Jumia says that as of December 31 2020, they had €304.9 million in cash on their balance sheet which includes €203 million from their offering completed in December.
There are also some interesting insights from the Jumia investor brief. In 2020, Jumia Advertising ran over 1000 ad campaigns for 370 advertisers. Jumia logistics reported that they shipped almost half a million packages for 270 clients including large corporates.
The company said that COVID-19 pandemic affected their business. “Overall, COVID-19 had a net negative effect on the business in 2020. As a result of only limited recourse to nationwide lockdowns across our footprint, the pandemic did not lead to drastic change in consumer behavior nor meaningful acceleration in consumer adoption of ecommerce at a pan-African level. On the other hand, movement restrictions due to localized lockdowns and curfews negatively affected supply and logistics, especially in our food delivery business and in the first and second quarters of 2020 in particular.”
The company is still hopeful of a turnaround. “Our focus continues to be on making further progress towards breakeven and we remain committed to reducing our Adjusted EBITDA loss in absolute terms in 2021 compared to 2020,” they said in the investors brief.
