Jumia reports 94% increase in 2019 second quarter

Jumia Technologies on Thursday announced its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30 with a 94 percent increase in gross profit.

Sacha Poignonnec, the co-chief executive officer of Jumia, disclosed this at a media briefing held in Lagos.

According to him, the quarter witnessed continued strong growth of top-line drivers, delivery of cost efficiency improvements and also focus on JumiaPay.

“We continue to deliver on our financial strategy of generating strong growth of our top-line drivers, while accelerating monetization, driving cost efficiencies and developing JumiaPay.

“During the second quarter of 2019, our gross merchandise volume (GMV) increased by 69 percent year-on-year and our Gross profit grew by 94 percent.

“Our adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) loss as a percentage of GMV decreased by 562 basis points (5.62 percentage points) and our operating loss, amounting to €66.7 million, decreased as a percentage of GMV by 148 basis points (1.48 percentage points).

“These results reflect our continued focus on offering a relevant and engaging online shopping and lifestyle destination for consumers, while providing our sellers with an attractive value proposition and a platform to grow their businesses,” he said.

He said the number of active consumers as at June 30, was 4.8 million, up from 3.2 million a year ago and 4.3 million at the end of the first quarter of 2019.

Poignonnec said these increases were as a result of continued focus on selection, price and convenience, as the company strove to be the preferred online shopping destination for consumers in Africa for all their daily needs.

He added that during the second quarter of 2019, Jumia continued to increase the assortment available on its platform and engaged with consumers through relevant local commercial campaigns such as our “Mobile Week” and “Ramadan” campaigns.

He pointed that Jumia remained focused on all aspects of its growth strategy, particularly JumiaPay, as the company continued to drive usage in its markets.

Poignonnec said that the strategies put in place across its main component driver would help grow its active consumer base, offer offline activation, expand the reach of possible things that would be done on the platform.

Others included increasing the relevance of the platform so that it could extract more value from it, managing its cost base, increasing the adoption of JumiaPay and others.