Online shopping website Jumia has ceased operations in Tanzania. The company made the announcement, taking effect 27th November 2019, as part of its plans to focus operation in other markets. It is apparent that the e-commerce site is desperately looking for all ways to cut its losses and become profitable.
One of the ways to achieve this is to close down businesses that are out of line in regards to these objectives.
Techawk reports that Jumia’s third quarter report indicated nothing near profitability despite making a revenue of $44.2 million. The loss stood at $55 million, which is higher than the $45 million it recorded in the same quarter in 2018.
A statement from Jumia states that business in the East African country has not been going on as normal and thus become hard to sustain.
Here is the statement:
Based on our review of the path to success, we have made a difficult decision to cease our operations in Tanzania as of 27th Nov 2019.
While Tanzania has strong potential and we’re proud of the growth we’ve collectively seen stemming from Jumia’s adoption, we have to focus our resources on our other markets. This decision isn’t easy but will help put our focus and resources where they can bring the best value and help Jumia thrive.
Jumia will continue to support buyers and vendors through our classifieds portal, previously called Jumia Deals, which will now be the main portal jumia.tz. Thousands of buyers and vendors transact through this portal and we believe it will continue to become increasingly relevant in the future.
We should also note that it is coming to a week or more since Jumia left the Cameroon market. This means that the site will now be present in Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Tunisia, Algeria, Ghana, Senegal, Uganda and Rwanda.
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