Jumia Gains 636,000 New Customers, Loses $55 Million According to Just Released Q3 Report

Africa’s e-commerce giants, Jumia,has released its financial report for the third quarter (Q3) of 2019. The reports show that since July, Jumia has gained 636,000 new customers.

After going public on the New York Stock Exchange in April, the recent statistics show that Jumia now has 5.5 million annual active customers, rising from the 3.5 million recorded last year.

This is the company’s biggest single-quarter growth over the last few years: collectively, about 7 million orders were processed, almost doubling the 3.6 million registered last year.

During the quarter, the total value of items sold on an e-commerce website (GMV) rose by 38.7% compared to the third quarter of 2018 but it dropped compared to last quarter. Jumia’s GMV stood at $303.3 million, which is lower than $310.5 million recorded in Q2.

Also, Jumia’s revenue rose from $37.1 million in the same quarter of last year to $44.2 million in this quarter. So far in 2019, the e-commerce giants have made $122.3 million in revenue.

However, the company’s operational loss increased to $55 million from the $45 million recorded in the same quarter last year.

In 2019 alone, Jumia has already recorded a loss of $180.1 million compared to the $129.2 million operation loss recorded in 2018.

JumiaPay recorded the biggest growth

JumiaPay, which incorporates Jumia Group’s financial services like payment processing for items purchased on the platform, was recorded as the fastest-growing category.

According to the Q3 report, Jumia processed 2.1 million transactions with a total transaction volume of $35.3 million. JumiaPay processed $35.2 million, equivalent to about 11.6% of Jumia’s entire GMV during the quarter.

Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, Co-Chief Executive Officers of Jumia acknowledge the strong momentum of JumiaPay, revealing that the company’s financial strategy is committed to the growth of JumiaPay.

“We continue to make great strides in our payment and fintech business with JumiaPay showing very strong growth momentum on both volume and transaction metrics. Our financial strategy seeks to balance growth, JumiaPay development, monetization and cost efficiencies. We manage this equation on a dynamic basis and are now placing even greater emphasis on cash discipline and efficiency.”

Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, Co-Chief Executive Officers of Jumia.

In September, the company disclosed plans to make JumiaPay a standalone business in order to expand into off-platform payment in the future. Currently, Jumia’s fintech solution is only available in Nigeria, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Morocco and Kenya.

In an update to the fraudulent scheme reportedly committed by some Jumia employees in its Nigerian based, the Q3 report disclosed that the accused individuals have resigned or have since been fired by the company.