“Our customer service is unmatched anywhere”, says Sherief Makhlouf, proud co-founder of Jumia. Jumia is Egypt’s latest venture into e-commerce but before you roll your eyes and think it is a flash in the pan, Jumia looks like it is here to stay.
The website acts like a grand store for everything a customer might need, not unlike Amazon. It is a platform for the most painless online shopping experience in Egypt, so Jumia says.
Online shopping has been a growing trend in Egypt and websites like Souq have found popular success as Egyptians embrace the convenience of not leaving their homes to shop.
“Jumia was launched in August 2012 by a group of Egyptians and Rocket Internet. We have two major value propositions and these are a wide selection and convenience. We focus on two things: one is a general merchandising store that sells everything a customer could want, and another is a store for fashion that we market differently. So even though we have a unified store for everything, we will have a separate Facebook page for the fashion section of Jumia”, said Makhlouf.
Makhlouf explained that the reason behind this is that the audience is different and more specialised, “the list of companies that make cell phones will rarely be more than ten but fashion is endless and ever-expanding so we need to cater to that. We also have things that coincide with certain important events in the fashion world like the Oscars where we can offer a certain ‘red carpet’ look.”
Jumia is currently rapidly expanding but Makhlouf says the focus is always on the customer, “we have recently acquired funding from JP Morgan which we will use to offer better products and service but our number one goal is pleasing the customer. Even office culture revolves around it, from our call centers to our delivery cars to ensuring that every time a customer pays for something, it works with no exception. Jumia does not think of customer service as an expense. We think of it as an investment.”
Response has been phenomenal for the website and Jumia offers things like free delivery all over Egypt for anything above EGP 95 as well as fast delivery, “our delivery time is five days but in reality we have never delivered in five days, we always deliver faster”, explained Makhlouf.
The website is fully functional and Makhlouf says what sets Jumia apart is their focus on the customer and their approach to customer service, “besides offering a wide range of better and high-quality products, our customer service is unmatched anywhere else.”
Jumia sells everything from fashion to jewelry, video games, books, health and beauty products, cellphones, electronics, TVs and toys. The store plans on further expansion to secure more products and improve customer service. Be sure to check out their fashion section which is specialized and tailored to fit what they describe as the “hardcore fashionista.”
