Jumia Global Goes After MallForAfrica
One of the best e-commerce companies with roots in Africa is Mall For Africa. It is the firm that makes it possible for you to buy things in U.S. stores and have them shipped to you in Africa. I had called Mall for Africa "peerless" because its business model is supremely based on aggregation construct which means that risk is very low.
Through this Aggregation Construct, this company can scale without any limitation. It enjoys scalable advantages both in supply (the customers buy and ship for it) and distribution (it uses courier companies to actually ship to final destinations). In all fashions, this company is built for scale. You can put the scalable advantage at close to 0.8.
Mall for Africa has since launched a product that makes it possible for Africans to ship wares to U.S. just as it helps Africans to buy wares on popular sites like Amazon, Macy's etc. It is a category-king company and dominates its sector very well.
But Chris Folayan, CEO, MallforAfrica, may have a challenger soon. That is Jumia Global. Jumia has unveiled a product to specifically take the competition to Mall for Africa. Jumia has built a business on vertically integrated web empires. Now, it wants to close the foreign element. Jumia Global will begin with Kenya.
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But this game seems to have been won [sure, I am not supposed to write that], and the winner is Mall for Africa. MallforAfrica has closed all the best deals in the world and is well funded to hold its grounds. But yet, Jumia has a German root which gives it access to many European partners.
But one thing is clear here: Jumia is copying Mr. Folayan who is a fine entrepreneur. Possibly, any battle will serve customers better as the companies will be forced to invest more, reduce cost and deliver higher customer experience.
Let's see how it plays out.
Bias reporting/writing.
Jumia Global focus on Merchants from China. MallforAfrica is more of American and European stores. They are not entirely the same.
But one thing is clear here: Jumia is copying Mr. Folayan who is a fine entrepreneur.
What isn't copied? Before MallforAfrica, weren't there other players? The quoted point is just unnecessary!
