Web traffic on the major eCommerce sites in Nigeria is at an all time low. Konga fell 113 places in global web ranking during the first three months of 2016. Jumia Nigeria fell by 183. Although Kaymu’s web traffic grew, bounce rate grew by 44%, daily pageviews per visitor fell by 22.5%, while daily time spent on site went down by 21%.
I got all of that from Alexa. Then I went over to Similarweb to see what else I could get.
Jumia.com.ng
Konga.com
Kaymu’s web traffic grew, but activity levels on the website dropped
Dealdey
Last month, Rocket Internet, Jumia Nigeria’s parent company, released the Q1 2016 performance update for all their companies, so Jumia’s was included. Overall, Rocket Internet experienced a 36% YoY growth for aggregate GMV (i.e. the total value of its merchandise sold between Q1 2015 and Q1 2016 grew by 36%). It also enjoyed a 34% aggregate revenue growth.
However, when these figures are classified, you will see something different. The companies presented in the document are divided into four groups: food and groceries, fashion, general merchandise, and home and living. Food and groceries grew by €100 million, fashion grew by €47 million, home and living by €9 million, but general merchandise experienced a €22 million negative growth. And Jumia Nigeria falls under general merchandise.
Wait, there’s more.
Nigeria is Jumia’s biggest market, and the decline of Jumia Nigeria’s figures had (as expected) a huge effect on the company’s overall performance. Jumia’s GMV fell 8% from what it was in Q1 2015 (i.e., from 56.1 to 51.6). Its net revenue experienced negative growth of 36.6%.
According to the performance update, Jumia’s GMV and net revenue were negatively impacted by the challenging macroeconomic environment in Nigeria. Net revenue was further impacted by Jumia’s “accelerated shift to the marketplace model.”
The falling figures are probably underscored by the massive layoffs that occurred late last, from Dealdey to Jumia.
But, as Jeff Bezos and Amazon, and Jack Ma and Alibaba have proven, eCommerce is a long game, one full of ups and downs and epileptic growths and declines. It’s too early, and it will be senseless, for me to question Nigerian eCommerce, right?
