How to Sell Your Products on Jumia in Kenya

With the rise in online shopping, selling products on Jumia Kenya has become a go-to marketplace for traders. This shift is transforming the traditional market through the use of technology and efficiency.

Currently, there are dozens of online marketplaces in Kenya with Jumia being the market leader. This article covers the process of selling your products on Jumia in Kenya

Jumia is an online marketplace where sellers list their goods for customers to buy. Most analysts refer to it as the African version of Amazon. This is because it focuses on the African market and became the first African business to get listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Selling through Jumia gives you access to millions of customers across the country. It also helps with marketing especially for small traders who might not have the capacity to compete with big brands.

Becoming a great business person requires several traits to succeed such as, the Factors to Consider Before Starting a Business in Kenya .

Advantages of Selling Products on Jumia Kenya

Access to a wide customer base

Since Jumia is an online marketplace, the target markets are online shoppers from across the world. In Kenya, Jumia has over 4 million customers, with 215,000 potential customers visiting the site monthly.

This is a huge customer base that is difficult to get on a conventional physical store. As more people continue embracing technology, this number will likely keep expanding hence increasing the customer base.

According to Jumia, 40% of their vendors make more than 50,000 shillings per month. An amount that is higher than the traditional stores average

Jumia enables you to compete with big brands

In the traditional physical business setting, it is difficult for a small business to compete with big brands. This is because they can’t compete in key areas such as good location, marketing, and stocking.

However, on an online platform, it is impossible to tell the difference between a major supplier and a minor one as some of these elements don’t play a key role.

This gives small businesses a fair chance of competing with big brands.

It reduces the need to own a physical business store

Traditionally, if you wanted to start a business, you had to rent out a store from where you could run it. This translates to increased business expenses in the form of rent permits and office furnishing.

However, with online marketplaces such as Jumia, you can run your business from the comfort of your home.

Listing your products on Jumia reduces the challenges that come with getting a good business location especially for small businesses that don’t have the financial muscle.

Joining the Jumia marketplace is free

There are no costs to list your products on Jumia. This makes the startup process easier and gives a chance to traders with little capital.

Disadvantages of Selling Products on Jumia Kenya

Commission payment

Since Jumia offers you a platform to market your products, you have to part with a small fee in exchange. 

Although there are no joining fees, there is a fee every time you make a successful sale. As a cost, this reduces your profits as opposed to selling in a physical shop where you keep all the income.

Commissions range from 5-15% depending on the product’s category. You pay the commission for every product sold.

Jumia Kenya Website.

Canceled orders

Some challenges arise due to a lack of physical interaction with customers. Some of these include the cancellation of an order after making a purchase.

Others usually fail to pick up the goods after the delivery process is complete adding costs and wasting time for the seller.

Damaging of goods in transit

Unlike traditional businesses where most customers take up the responsibility of goods transportation after purchase, it is different in the online shopping business.

In most cases, goods are usually to the customer’s premises increasing the risk of damage during this process.

This increase in risk results in to increase in costs if the actual damage happens.

Some of the solutions to minimize this risk is through the use of a trustworthy delivery agent and better packaging.

Now that you understand the pros and cons of selling in Jumia, let us look at some of the requirements you need to fulfill to start this process.

Requirements to Become a Jumia Seller/Vendor

1. You must be a vendor based in Nairobi.
2. The products must be new and genuine. The platform does not allow the selling of used and fake products.
3. You must sell legal products. Below is a list of some of the illegal items that you can’t sell in Jumia.
4. Pirated publications
5. Adult toys
6. Medicine and related items
7. Cigarettes and tobacco
8. Explosives and fireworks
9. Plants and animals
10. Weapons
11. Company/Business registration details
12. Bank account details
13. Contact details such as email address and phone number
14. Have a maximum goods return rate of 2% after listing.
15. Be at least 18 years old
16. Have a ready to ship policy within 24 hours
17. Maintain a star rating of 3 and above.

Jumia’s Product Categories

1. Supermarket (e.g. household supplies, foods and drinks, etc.)
2. Health and beauty (e.g. hair care, fragrances, makeup, bathing accessories, etc.)
3. Home and office (e.g. home kitchen, refrigerators, washers and dryers, office furniture, etc.)
4. Phones and tablets (e.g. mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, headphones, etc.)
5. Computing (e.g. laptops, computers and accessories, external hard drives, etc.)
6. Electronics (e.g. televisions, speakers, cameras, home audio, etc.)
7. Fashion (e.g. women’s fashion, men’s fashion, kid’s fashion, etc.)
8. Gaming (e.g. PlayStation, Nintendo, digital games, etc.)
9. Baby products (e.g. diapering, baby and toddler toys, potty training, etc.)
10. Sporting goods (e.g. sports nutrition, cycling gear, camping and hiking gear, etc.)
11. Garden and outdoors (e.g. gardening and lawn care, outdoor décor, farm, ranch, etc.)
12. Others (e.g. automobile parts, books, movies & music, musical instruments, pet supplies, toys& games, grocery, etc.)

You can look up the constituents of the different categories on the Jumia website. In case you do not know which category to put your product in, you can reach out to Jumia customer care for assistance.

The Process of Registering as a Seller on Jumia

Step 1: Sign up as a seller on the seller center section of Jumia

The seller’s center portal is where sellers register and manage their business. It will take you less than 10 minutes to register.

Some of the details required in the registration form include:

• Your name
• Preferred email address and phone number
• Your preferred Jumia store name
• Type of the business entity- whether a solo business or a registered company
• Postal address
• Bank account details
• Product category
• Acceptance of the terms and conditions

Upon submission of the registration form, you will receive an email from Jumia within a few hours confirming the status of your application.

You will need to click on the link sent to your email to verify your seller’s account.

Step 2: Enroll into Jumia university

Jumia offers its vendors/ sellers training on online shop management. This is a free training that focuses on critical areas such as the basics of e-commerce, operations, marketing, finance, and sales skills.

Registration Success

Step 3: Start selling your products

Upon successful registration and training, the next step is to start operations. This begins with the listing of your products on the Jumia platform.

The process of listing your products depends on the availability of the product on the Jumia website.

If the product already exists on the Jumia website, you can list it on your store by adding the price quotation, quantity, variations, and product name.

However, if the product does not exist on Jumia, it will be a slightly longer process. You will require to list the new product via the seller’s platform by uploading product photos and/or videos, product name, price, quantity, description, and the product’s Universal Product Code (UPC).

The newly listed product must be among the legally allowed product on the Jumia marketplace.

There are various methods you can use to list your products depending on the amount of inventory you have.

• Getting help from the Jumia production services experts
• Adding the products individually
• Uploading them through an excel sheet. This works if you are listing in bulk.

Once products are live on Jumia, you become eligible to start receiving customer orders.

Step 4: Fulfill customer orders

Jumia’s policy requires the seller to ship the ordered products within 24hrs.

For you to achieve this, you must ensure to keep checking your seller’s account and email at least once a day.

Every time a customer places an order, the order reflects in your seller center account and also in your email. Once you receive the order, it is time to package the order for delivery purposes.

Jumia products Packaging

Jumia maintains strict and standard practices on product packaging. This ensures there is uniformity and quality in this area.

Proper packaging is key in ensuring goods get to the customer in a good condition helping to improve customer satisfaction.

Some of the main packaging guidelines are;

• Ensure you use the relevant branded Jumia packaging material.
• The next step is to staple the shipping label on the package. For this step, you should ensure the shipping label barcode is scannable and the ink should neither be too thick nor too thin.
• The last step applies to large items. Once you package the item, you should find a clear plastic pouch where you will insert the shipping label, and then tape it to the packaged item.

Jumia offers the relevant packing materials for sale at their shops on weekdays from 8.00 a.m. -4.30 p.m. and on Saturday from 8.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m.

Order Delivery

Jumia offers sellers two delivery methods for their products

• VDO station dropping points

For this method, you will house your inventory, package the orders and then deliver the package to the drop-off stations.

Upon dropping, Jumia is responsible for delivering the package to the customer’s address.

• Subscribing to Jumia express service

For this option, Jumia takes charge of the whole sales process on behalf of the seller. You will ship your products/inventory to Jumia, and they will package and ship all the orders to the customers.

This process ensures a faster delivery time to your customers since Jumia prioritizes these deliveries. However, this method is more expensive than the previous one since you will have to pay warehousing fees to Jumia.

Payment process

Jumia payments are done either on a weekly or monthly basis. Hence, you should choose the alternative that suits your needs.

Weekly payments are made every Wednesday, while monthly payments are made on the 8th working day of the month.

Jumia only pays out money for delivered orders. Pending orders, ready to ship, and failed deliveries are not paid for.

The payments are flexible and could take place in form of mobile wallet transfers such as M-Pesa or a bank transfer.

For Mpesa payments, you need to provide:

• M-Pesa name
• M-Pesa phone number

The M-Pesa account name should match the name of the registered vendor. The M-Pesa phone number should also be registered under your name. This is done in a bid to minimize fraud cases.

For bank transfer, you will need to provide:

• Account name- this should be registered under the company name or the vendor’s name.
• Account number
• Bank
• Bank code
• Branch

Ensure you give the correct details to avoid any payment bounce backs.

Every time you deliver an order, the payment minus commission and fees are reflected in your account statement.

You can download your payment summaries from your account for accounting purposes at any time.

Conclusion

Now that you have understood the process of selling products on Jumia Kenya, you can go ahead and start selling your products.

To recap, the steps involved in selling items on Jumia are:

1. Sign up as a seller on the seller center of the Jumia website
2. Enroll into Jumia university
3. Start selling your products
4. Fulfill customers’ orders
5. Get paid.