Jumia’s warehouse gets busy as Black Friday kicks off

Workers at Jumia's warehouse ahead of Black Friday offer (PHOTO: Courtesy)

NAIROBI, KENYA: Activity at the Jumia warehouse was high on Monday as the ecommerce company’s Black Friday Festival went live.

During this period, online shoppers are expected to enjoy better deals with discounts of up to 80 per cent on some of the products. 

Jumia’s Black Friday will run for a month, from November 13 to December 13. 

This is a departure from the normal Black Friday as practiced in the United Kingdom and the US where the occasion runs on the last Friday of November. 

This year, it falls on November 24 2017 - it's always the day after Thanksgiving in the U.S. However as the day has grown in prominence and online shopping has made searching for a bargain easier, many shops such as Jumia launch deals well ahead of the big day.

Jumia says there will be over 500,000 deals on over 1000 brands ranging from electronics to foodstuff. 

“In addition to daily deals, there also will be 6 flash sales run every day throughout the period at 8am, 10am, 12pm 2pm 4pm and 6pm with discounts of up to 80 per cent certain products. There will also be flash sales on Saturday and Sunday for a customer to enjoy. New deals will continue to be released throughout the period,” said Jumia in a statement. 

A recent memorable flash sale was when the online company offered a 50 per cent discount on a two kilogram maize flour, selling Sh45 between July3 and July 9. 

Jumia is an online marketplace where vendors selling a variety of goods connect with buyers. 

Vendors have an option of storing goods in their warehouse and only delivering them when there is a customer places an order. However, for faster delivery, especially now when orders are expected to come thick and fast, most vendors opt to store their goods in Jumia’ s warehouse. It also saves them storage cost.