Jumia’s marketplace for restaurants has launched a late-night delivery service to enable customers to order food up until midnight.
The Managing Director of the company, Guy Futi, disclosed this at a press conference held at Krispy Kreme, Victoria Island, Lagos.
“We introduced the late-night delivery service to accommodate customers who order food at night. The late-night delivery combined with initiatives like greater customer accessibility, more payment options, more locations, lunchtime deals, seasonal deals and new related products (Jumia Party) has led to over 120% increase in the volume of orders,” Guy said.
Speaking on efforts to ensure quick delivery of foods ordered on the platform, Guy, who was recently appointed the Managing Director of the marketplace said: “We have made it possible for orders to be picked up by the rider closest to a restaurant’s location.
“With this, we can deliver orders to the customer’s doorstep within 40 minutes and interestingly, the delivery process can be tracked right from the time when the customer places the order to the moment the order is delivered.”
According to him, the fast-paced trend of eating out and experimenting with various cuisines has provided opportunities for food service business, adding that Jumia Food is ready to deploy technology to play an enabler role across various facets of the food service value chain, especially ordering and delivering at consumers’ doorsteps.
Futi said the company has improved its app for a better user experience, allowing customers to slide across menu categories with improved designs. There are over 246 restaurants on the app.
This year, he said the food segment of Jumai group grew by over 70 per cent and online sales mode constituted a major part of retail sales.
The online food-delivery platform, he added, is expanding choice and convenience, allowing customers to order from a wide array of restaurants with their mobile phone.
On what to expect in 2019, the Head of Marketing and Vendor Success for the Marketplace, Chioma Odimegwu said that operational efficiency will be an integral part of the company’s focus in 2019.
“In 2019, we are looking forward to welcoming a new and exciting restaurant/vendor on board within the month.
“We will also be engaging new partnerships across other industries to provide added value to customers, onboarding more restaurants with longer and later open hours, more focus on corporate catering offerings, encouraging closer relationships with our customers and restaurant vendors.”
He said the company was looking to grow its network of food kitchens worth the launch of an army of smaller brands.
Jumia Food is in 11 countries in Africa, including Morocco and Uganda, and has 2,000 restaurants partners across the continent.