How Black Friday became a Game-Changer for Many Sellers in Nigeria
Updated: Dec 2, 2022
Customer satisfaction is a top priority for Jumia’s e-commerce experience. However, it's difficult to make inroads if sellers on our platform are limited in how they can serve customers. Among the various marketing efforts we've conducted, Jumia Black Friday has become one of the most successful campaigns at making both customers and sellers happy.
But even though we have a wide range of products available at enticing prices, we've had to solve numerous challenges to make Black Friday a game-changer for sellers in Nigeria.
Adding value for sellers participating in Black Friday
One of the major challenges we had to tackle was how we provided sellers with information before the Black Friday event. Evidently, there's always a lot to address, such as how they benefit, how to enroll, and the standards they must meet.
So, in addition to holding a vendor conference as a physical event in advance of the event, we created a virtual option to ensure that all sellers could attend in the most convenient way possible. We also zoomed in on categories to give sellers an idea of the category-specific value we could provide during Black Friday.
Our team also disseminated a hunting list that’s repeatedly updated to reflect Black Friday’s hit products. For sellers offering an assortment of products, this information helps them know what products to focus on and how attractive their offers should be. And on top of submitting offers to the unified Black Friday promotion in the seller center, we’ve also enabled sellers to open campaign promotions based on user needs.
Another challenge we faced was how to harmonize the growing group of partners, which included multiple brands in direct competition. For instance, how do you ensure that two opposing electronics or beverage brands achieve maximum sales during Black Friday?
First, we broadened the conversation with these partners to understand their products' uniqueness and business objectives. For example, is one brand more interested in shoppers who want low prices? Does another brand want consumers who are more into style and aesthetics?
After understanding the differences in their value propositions and the consequent variations in the kind of customers they want to attract, we’d then have a better idea of how they can be presented on our platform. Accordingly, we’d suggest various visibility options, such as a feature on our homepage, in addition to a spot on a separate catalog page for partners.
They could also opt for supplementary displays via banners and widgets. Once we ascertain each brand's visibility preferences, we analyze their potential customers' shopping patterns during Black Friday to determine the possible level of exposure and conversions on any given day. Eventually, we can rotate the offers from competing brands with similar objectives so each gets the most out of Black Friday.
Besides these two challenges, we also faced enormous pressure to match operational capacity with the Black Friday-induced surge in order volumes. In response, we complemented our distribution hub expansion by scrutinizing warehouse and delivery fleet performance to determine which assets were underutilized. This happened concurrently with forecasting efforts so we could hold adequate stock and optimize the flow of inbound and outbound items.
Additionally, this data-driven approach that considers previous and ongoing Black Friday order activity would enable us to scale up promptly in other areas like human resources and equipment where necessary.
How Black Friday improvements have benefited sellers in Nigeria
We’ve made it much easier for sellers of all sizes to learn about the benefits of Black Friday and enroll in a simpler and more tailored manner. More specifically, we’ve witnessed an increase in the number of sellers who join Black Friday while it’s already underway and still get a substantial boost in sales.
Sellers have seen significant increases in revenue during Black Friday, with many of them maintaining a considerable portion of this upturn after the campaign. More importantly, they have gained valuable knowledge on the correlation between visibility packages and sales and can now promote their offers more strategically.
Small-scale sellers in Nigeria can now get larger volumes of their products to consumers without worrying about investing heavily in advertising and scaling up distribution. They can also avert errors caused by sudden increases in activity and subsequently reduce returns.
With Black Friday, we work to synchronize the pace of improvements in the on-platform experience and on-the-ground order fulfillment activities. Our team also considers the buildup to Black Friday and the campaign's aftermath to ensure that sellers enter this period smoothly, excel during the event, and remain successful afterward.
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Oyekanmi Oluwatosin Head of Seller Management, Jumia Nigeria Before being the Head of Seller Management, Jumia Nigeria in 2021, Tosin was responsible for commercial operations and revenue management in Nigeria. Tosin started as a Sourcing Associate and has excelled in several roles at Jumia, driven by his love for retail and e-commerce. Tosin graduated from Bowen University in Nigeria with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science.