Jumia Is Making A Curious Bet On Ultra-Fast Q-commerce Against The Odds

For Damilola Popoola, an ambitious 27-year-old fashion designer who recently moved into an apartment of her own and is too busy to do anything besides making dresses at times, ordering food online can be a lifesaver. And she’s been pleasantly surprised by the speed of her preferred relatively inexpensive option, Jumia Food, of late.

“To be honest, I stopped using Jumia for a long time because I’ve had issues with bad products and annoying delays in the past. But I started to test the food delivery app again in the last two months and it’s been a lot faster than what I’m used to,” Popoola told WeeTracker.

“I’m getting my food in like 30 minutes on average these days and that’s a big improvement if you ask me,” she added while noting that the idea of ordering other stuff besides meals and receiving it just as quickly could be appealing.

And however tricky it might seem, the pursuit of sub-hour deliveries for everyday products appears to have become an area of interest for Africa’s biggest e-tailer, Jumia, in the past year.

This move though - albeit operationally practical from a Jumia standpoint and increasingly attractive to customers - is dogged by scepticism. This is due to concerns that the q-commerce dabble is at odds with the goals of a company that has, over the last two years, relentlessly echoed its commitment to cutting losses and achieving profitability but has only made marginal progress on those fronts.