Jumia Technologies AG posted a 12% increase in gross profit of US$ 33.8 Million(€27.9 Million) for the period ended December 31st, 2020.
The e-commerce company published both Q4, 2020 financials, as well as the 2020 end year earnings.
Merchandise sold by Jumia
The total value of merchandise sold over the three months by the e-commerce platform, with a presence in several African countries including Kenya, was US$ 280.2 Million, a quarter-on-quarter acceleration of 23%. This was supported by the Black Fridays event in November 2020.
However, value of merchandise sold fell 21% year-over-year, a decline that is blamed on Jumia’s business mix rebalancing initiated in late 2019 continued playing out during the fourth quarter of 2020.
Sales & Advertising expense was US$ 12.4 Million, a yearly decline of 34%.
General & Administrative costs, which exclude share-based compensation expense, reached US$ 26.4 Million, a decrease of 36% year-over-year.
EBITDA
Adjusted EBITDA loss was US$ 34.3 Million, the firm’s overall financial performance decreasing by 47% year-over-year.
JumiaPay TPV, a measure of the total dollar amount of payments transacted over its platform), reached US$ 71.9 Million, yearly growth of 30%.
According to Jumia Co-Chief Executive Officers Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec, 2020 presented significant operational challenges to Jumia due to COVID-19 related supply and logistics disruption.
Also, Jumia raised approximately US$ 246.1 Million in a primary offering in December 2020. This strengthened its balance sheet, enhanced its business and move towards profitability according to the CEO.
The online seller’s top three selling categories was fashion, beauty and home & lifestyle.
The platform’s Logistics moved 4.8 million packages during Black Fridays, more than double the monthly average for the rest of the year.
In parallel, the online shopping platform is enhancing its technology stack. It has developed a broader range of ad solutions and features for more granular audience targeting based on search terms, price points, geolocation.
This is in addition to the typical user signals of browsing, add-to-cart data and purchasing history.
Active consumers on this platform reached 6.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, up 12% year-over-year with continued growth.
Customers ordering on this e-commerce platform hit 8.1 million, a yearly decline of 3%. This is on the back of a 14% decrease in digital services transactions on the JumiaPay app. The rest of the platform had stable order numbers.
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