BUSINESSNews

Jumia Black Friday 2018: Understanding the Jumia Flash Sales and Treasure Hunts


Jumia Black Friday is here and most of you have probably been saving for this time of the month to get your favourite smartphone, that smart tv you have been eyeing for long or even just get an early Christmas gift for your loved ones.

The Black Friday started on 2nd November and runs for an entire month until November 30th. During the launch of the campaign which I managed to attend, Jumia Kenya Managing Director Sam Chappatte said they had lots of expectations, adding that they expected 4 million Kenyans to log onto the Jumia platform this Black Friday to secure deals through flash sales, treasure hunts and event normal purchases. He said they expect this year’s event to be twice as large as 2017.

The top opening Jumia Black Friday 2018 Flash Sales, for example, went live on November 2nd at 9:00 AM. The flash sales included products like SP5 Smart Phone 1GB, Duvet, Xtigi 5000 mah power bank, Huawei Y5 smartphones among others. Some of you probably managed to gran these deals while some didn’t. I remember going online afterwards and read complains with some people even calling the flash sale a scam.  This prompted me to go find out from Jumia how exactly this flash sales and treasure hunts work. I sat down with the Jumia MD to talk about this. Are flash sales a scam? Is Jumia just trying to drive more people to their website with these offers? Just how does it work?

According to the MD, flash sales are certain products, let’s say a phone at 30, 40 or 50% off the normal price. He says flash sales will never have less than 10 pieces of the product being sold. Not everyone, however, gets a chance to grab the deal due to the number of people visiting the platform at that same time.

‘’When we went live with our first Black Friday flash sales this month, for example, we had more than 70,000 people visiting the website at that one moment’’ he said. ‘’So if you have that number of people going for the same thing at the same time, most of them will be disappointed because we don’t have unlimited stock of everything’’

With flash sales, he says Jumia places a great product, at a great price online with limited stock because it’s either them or the brand investing in it. He adds that Jumia also puts different products so as not to disappoint shoppers during these flash sales.

Treasure hunts, on the other hand, is literally one item hidden on the website. It’s like a game and the whole point is for shoppers to find it This black Friday for example, the OPPO Find X which costs Ksh. 100,000 was selling at Ksh. 5.

Jumia Social Media Manager, Christine Mutugi with David Kasee (right) and Timothy Mathai who were among the five lucky Black Friday shoppers of Oppo Find X for only Kes 5 (phone retails for Kes 104) during the App only Treasure Hunt. Jumia Black Friday started on the 2nd November and will run until 30th November with deals of up to 70% on 3M products.

You have to look, get clues and find it. Typically, it takes about 10 to 15 minutes for someone to find the treasure hunt. ‘’ Once they find it, we let people know and that’s it. Again, not everyone can win but whatever we say about these products is always truthful’’

Both Flash sales and treasure hunts sell very fast on the Jumia platform. The MD says they can sell hundreds flash sales of units in a minute.

To ensure you grab these deals he also shared some tips: Be ready, know what you want and when it’s going live, be fast which always works very well when you’re using the Jumia app.

Well, there you have it. I hope that answers all your questions about flash sales and treasure hunts.

Have anything to add to this story? Leave us a comment in the comments section below. You can also follow or subscribe to our newsletter to ensure you don’t miss out on an all the Jumia Black Friday 2018 deals.

Facebook Comments

REGISTER NOW

Nixon Kanali

Tech journalist based in Nairobi. I track and report on tech and African startups. Founder and Editor of TechTrends Media. Nixon is also the East African tech editor for Africa Business Communities. Send tips to nkanali@techtrendske.co.ke.

Have anything to add to this article? Leave us a comment below

Back to top button