Jumia, the leading e-commerce platform in Africa, has disclosed its financial reports for last year approved by the CEO, Francis Dufay. The report unveils that high inflation rates and currency depreciation across African countries have significantly affected its customers’ orders, presenting challenges for tech and retail businesses.
The company saw a decrease in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) by 20% from $932.5 million in 2022 to $749.8 million in 2023 and in Revenue from $203.3 million in 2022 to $186.4 million in 2023.
The Gross Profit decreased by 9.4% from $118.2 million in 2022 to $107.1 million in 2023 while Orders decreased by 22.4% from 27.5 million in 2022 to 21.3 million in 2023.
However, the report reveals that despite the decrease in figures, the company closed last year in a strong position, disclosing its Loss before tax from continuing operations for the year decreased to $98.6 million in 2023 compared to $206 million in 2022.
The company shows that it underwent a radical overhaul to strengthen its financial status and establish a foundation for its e-commerce endeavours, while the overhaul yielded a painful short-term impact, it has led to much leaner, more efficient, and more focused operations. The company made some decisions such as ceasing e-commerce activities that are less promising like Food delivery services in certain African countries and redirecting resources into the physical goods business.
It emphasizes creating compacted dynamic units to focus on key priorities and strategic alignment across all countries and functions, and to decrease sales and advertising expenses whilst curbing the use of vouchers and free shipping offers.
In the report, the CEO, on the other hand, appreciates and acknowledges the dedication of the employees, for putting in their best despite the challenges and time constraints, and he said that the company is committed to providing the best service possible to its customers and sellers, with determination to sustain the company’s successful e-commerce service across Africa.
