Jumia: Gross Profit increased by 12% to €27.9 million in Q4 2020

Lagos, February 24, 2021 – Jumia Technologies AG announced today its financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year ended December 31, 2020.

Results highlights for the fourth quarter of 2020

• GMV was €231.1 million, a quarter-on-quarter acceleration of 23% supported by the Black Fridays event in November 2020. GMV was down 21% year-over-year, as the effects of the business mix rebalancing initiated in late 2019 continued playing out during the fourth quarter of 2020
• Gross profit reached €27.9 million, a year-over-year increase of 12%.
• Gross profit after Fulfillment expense reached a record €8.4 million, compared to €1.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2019.
• Sales & Advertising expense was €10.2 million, a year-over-year decrease of 34%.
• General & Administrative costs, excluding share-based compensation expense, reached €21.8 million, a decrease of 36% year-over-year.
• Adjusted EBITDA loss was €28.3 million, decreasing by 47% year-over-year.
• JumiaPay TPV reached €59.3 million, increasing by 30% year-over-year. On-platform TPV penetration increased from 15.6% of GMV in the fourth quarter of 2019 to 25.7% of GMV in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec, Co-Chief Executive Officers of Jumia commented,

“We continued to make significant strides towards breakeven during the fourth quarter of 2020. Gross Profit after Fulfillment expense reached a record €8.4 million during the quarter.

In parallel, efficiencies across the full cost structure allowed us to decrease Fulfillment, Sales & Advertising and General & Administrative expenses (excluding share-based compensation) by 18%, 34% and 36% respectively, year-over-year. As a result, Adjusted EBITDA loss contracted by 47% year-over-year, reaching €28.3 million”.

“While 2020 has been a challenging year operationally with COVID-19 related supply and logistics disruption, it has been a transformative one for our economic model, as we firmly put the business on track towards breakeven.

In addition, we raised approximately €203 million in a primary offering in December 2020. This strengthened our balance sheet, enhanced our unit economics and overall positioned Jumia to scale efficiently towards profitability.

Beyond the near-term objective of breakeven, our long-term focus remains on fueling the growth of our e-commerce and payment platforms in Africa for decades to come.”

FOURTH QUARTER 2020 – SELECTED BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS

Black Fridays 2020

• Our Black Fridays campaign ran over the course of 4 Fridays in November 2020. Jumia pioneered the Black Friday event on a pan-African basis in 2014 and, for its sixth edition, crossed a number of milestones.
• Throughout the campaign, we sought to bring consumers a broad assortment of relevant products at attractive prices offered through a gamified and engaging experience. Pageviews across our platforms reached 1.5 billion, up 34% when compared with the 2019 event and our Black Fridays video content registered almost 100 million views, 3 times higher compared to the 2019 event. Our top three selling categories in terms of items sold, were the fashion, beauty and home & lifestyle, demonstrating the relevance of Jumia for everyday consumer needs in

Africa.

• As Jumia Black Fridays have become a highly anticipated event by consumers, this, in turn, drives increased momentum by sellers to take part in the event. More than 41,500 sellers participated in the 2020 event, with the top 20 sellers registering 141% growth in items sold in the 2020 Black Fridays compared to the same period in 2019. Leveraging the high level of consumer engagement during the event, sellers often use this opportunity to launch new products. For the first time in Africa, L’Oréal chose Jumia Black Fridays to launch ModiFace, its virtual try-on feature for make-up which transforms the online experience for beauty, leveraging Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence.
• The strength of our logistics backbone is crucial to the success of the event. Jumia Logistics handled 4.8 million packages during the event, more than double the monthly average for the rest of the year. We also reached new milestones of delivery speed with 55% of packages reaching consumers in less than 24 hours, compared to 44% in 2019.

Jumia Advertising

• 2020 marked the first full year of operation for Jumia Advertising, with accelerating momentum in the fourth quarter of 2020, supported by Black Fridays.
• In 2020, Jumia Advertising ran over 1,000 advertising campaigns on behalf of 370 advertisers including high profile partners such as Unilever, Nivea, L’Oreal, Xiaomi, Huawei, Intel and many more.
• To support the long-term growth of Jumia Advertising and accelerate the shift from analogue to digital advertising in Africa, we are establishing strong relationships with brands and advertising agencies. In parallel, we are enhancing our technology stack and have developed a broader range of ad solutions and features for more granular audience targeting, based on search terms, price points, geolocation in addition to the typical user signals of browsing, add-to-cart data and purchasing history.

Jumia Logistics

• 2020 marked the opening of Jumia Logistics services to third parties. Whether sellers on the Jumia marketplace or not, business clients can now leverage the Jumia Logistics platform for their fulfilment needs.
• During the pilot conducted in 2020, we shipped almost half a million packages on behalf of more than 270 clients including large corporates such as banks, FMCG companies, mobile network operators as well as SMEs from a broad range of industries.

Commitment to community

• A core part of the Jumia mission is to improve everyday life on the African continent by leveraging technology. In November 2020, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) partnered up with Jumia in Uganda to help consumers access sexual and reproductive health services. COVID-19 disruptions severely affected the supply chain for contraceptives in the country, putting at risk the health and safety of women and young people.
• This partnership aims to provide consumers with convenient and private access to a wide range of reproductive health commodities including male and female condoms, HIV self-test kits, pregnancy tests and maternity kits. All relevant items ordered on the reproductive health category on the Jumia platform were delivered across Uganda free of charge from November 2020 until January 2021.

• Annual Active Consumers reached 6.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, up 12% year-over-year with continued growth in both new and returning consumers.
• Orders reached 8.1 million, down 3% year-over-year on the back of a 14% decrease in digital services transactions on the JumiaPay app, while Orders on the rest of the platform were stable. The trend within the digital services on the JumiaPay app is concentrated in airtime recharge transactions as a result of reduced consumer incentives within this category which has historically been promotionally intensive.
• GMV was €231.1 million, down 21% on a year-over-year basis, as the effects of the business mix rebalancing initiated in late 2019 continued playing out during the fourth quarter of 2020. To support our path to profitability, we decreased promotional intensity and consumer incentives on lower consumer lifetime value business, while increasing our focus on every-day product categories to drive consumer adoption and usage. This business mix rebalancing drove an approximately 19% decrease in average order value from €35.4 in the fourth quarter of 2019 to €28.7 in the fourth quarter of 2020, affecting overall GMV performance. On the other hand, the business mix rebalancing, alongside enhanced promotional discipline, was a meaningful driver of the unit economics improvement experienced throughout 2020, with Adjusted EBITDA loss per Order declining by 46% from €6.5 in the fourth quarter of 2019 to €3.5 in the fourth quarter of 2020. In addition, this rebalancing allowed us to diversify our business mix, reducing our reliance on phones and electronics categories which went from contributing approximately 50% of GMV in the fourth quarter of 2019 to approximately 40% in the fourth quarter of 2020.
• We are making meaningful progress in the reduction of the overall rate of Cancellations, Failed Deliveries and Returns (“CFDR”) as we drive further operational efficiencies, including an increase in prepayment penetration via JumiaPay. While actual rates of CFDR may vary from one quarter to the other, we observed a significant reduction in this ratio between 2019 and 2020.
• The CFDR rate as a percentage of GMV improved from 30% in 2019 to 25% in 2020. The CFDR rate as a percentage of Orders improved from 22% in 2019 to 16% in 2020. The CFDR rate is typically lower when expressed as a percentage of Orders than GMV as higher average item value orders tend to show higher CFDR rates.
• As a result of the significant improvement in CFDR ratios, the year-over-year trajectory of GMV and Orders after CFDR compares favourably vs pre-CFDR. GMV was down 19% in 2020 while GMV after CFDR was down 12% and Orders increased by 5% while Orders after CFDR increased by 14% over the same period.
• We drove the growth of GMV after CFDR in 2020 vs 2019 across digital services (offered on the JumiaPay app), food delivery and physical goods other than phones and electronics by 41%, 32% and 10% respectively. GMV after CFDR in phones and electronics categories declined by 35%, as a result of the business mix rebalancing we initiated in late 2019.
• Similarly, we generated growth of Orders after CFDR in 2020 vs 2019 across food delivery, physical goods other than phones and electronics and digital services of 39%, 20% and 4% respectively, while Orders after CFDR in phones and electronics categories declined by 2% year-over-year.
• The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic played out throughout 2020, including in the fourth quarter where the reinstatement of movement restrictions and curfews in selected geographies affected logistics flows for the e-commerce business and dinner deliveries for Jumia Food.
• Overall, COVID-19 had a net negative effect on the business in 2020. As a result of only limited recourse to nationwide lockdowns across our footprint, the pandemic did not lead to a drastic change in consumer behaviour nor meaningful acceleration in consumer adoption of e-commerce at a pan-African level. On the other hand, movement restrictions due to localized lockdowns and curfews negatively affected supply and logistics, especially in our food delivery business and in the first and second quarters of 2020 in particular.
• The development of the pandemic remains a fluid situation and we expect it to drive continued operating environment uncertainty. We also expect the economic challenges induced by the pandemic to negatively impact consumer sentiment and spending power.

• TPV increased by 30% from €45.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 to €59.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. On-platform penetration of JumiaPay as a percentage of GMV increased to 25.7% in the fourth quarter of 2020 from 15.6% in the fourth quarter of 2019.
• JumiaPay Transactions increased by 10% from 2.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 to 2.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, with Transactions above €10, which include prepaid purchases on the Jumia physical goods marketplace and Jumia Food platforms, growing by 55% over the same period. Overall, 33.1% of Orders placed on the Jumia platform in the fourth quarter of 2020 were paid for using JumiaPay, compared to 29.5% in the fourth quarter of 2019.

REVENUE

• First Party revenue decreased by 41% in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. This was in line with our strategy to undertake fewer sales on a first-party basis as we focus on running an asset-light marketplace model where third-party sellers offer consumers an expanding range of products and services. Shifts in the mix between first-party and marketplace activities trigger substantial variations in our Revenue as we record the full sales price net of returns as First Party revenue and only commissions and fees in the case of Marketplace revenue. Accordingly, we steer our operations not on the basis of our total revenue, but rather on the basis of Gross profit, as changes between third-party and first-party sales are largely eliminated at the Gross profit level.
• Marketplace revenue reached €27.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, up 7% compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. This was mostly driven by increases in Commissions, Fulfillment and Marketing & Advertising revenue streams, which increased by 19%, 14% and 30% year-over-year respectively.
• Commissions grew by 19% due to an increase in the share of higher commission rate categories including fashion, beauty or FMCG as well as lower promotional intensity.
• Fulfilment revenue increased by 14% as a result of continued shipping fees adjustments as well as pricing changes within our cross-border logistics which were initiated in the third quarter of 2020 and continued to be rolled out in the fourth quarter of 2020. As part of these changes, part of the international shipping fees that were previously charged to sellers was instead passed on to consumers. This change resulted in some of our international logistics revenue being recorded as Fulfillment revenue instead of revenue from Value Added Services.
• Value-Added Services decreased by 27% as a result of the aforementioned pricing changes in our cross-border logistics pricing.
• Marketing & Advertising revenue increased by 30% as a result of the strong take-up by advertisers of Jumia Advertising solutions, particularly during the Black Friday event where we ran campaigns on behalf of over 150 different advertisers including high profile partners such as Reckitt Benckiser, L’Oreal, Huawei, P&G, Intel, Exxon Mobil and many more.

Gross Profit

Gross profit increased by 12% to €27.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 from €24.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 as a result of the increase in Marketplace revenue. We also drove significant improvements in the profitability of our first-party business which posted an increase in gross profit in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared to the same period the prior year, despite a 41% decline in first-party revenue.

Fulfilment Expense

• Fulfilment expense decreased by 18% in the fourth quarter of 2020 on a year-over-year basis as a result of operational enhancements across our logistics operations. These included the optimization of our cross- border shipping matrix, staff costs savings in our fulfilment centres and a change in our volume pricing model from cost per package to cost per stop.
• During the fourth quarter of 2020, Gross profit after Fulfillment expense reached €8.4 million compared to €1.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, demonstrating continued unit economics improvement as we drive usage on our platform.

• Lastly, we are able to pass-on an increasing proportion of our Fulfillment expense to the combination of consumers and sellers via our Fulfillment and Value Added Services revenue streams respectively. The pass-through of our Fulfillment expense, measured as the ratio of the sum of Fulfillment and Value Added Services revenue over Fulfillment expense, increased from 64% in the fourth quarter of 2019 to 76% in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Sales & Advertising Expense

• Sales & Advertising expense decreased by 34% from €15.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 to €10.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. This drove strong marketing efficiency with Sales & Advertising expense per Order decreasing by 33%, from €1.9 per Order in the fourth quarter of 2019 to €1.3 in the fourth quarter of 2020. This development was partly attributable to continued enhancements in 2020 to our performance marketing strategy across search and social media channels, notably through more granular segmentation of our target market with differentiated campaigns and content for each segment.

General and Administrative Expense

General & Administrative expense, excluding SBC, reached €21.8 million, down 36% on a year-over-year basis. This significant decrease was attributable to staff costs savings as a result of the portfolio optimization and headcount rationalization initiatives launched in the fourth quarter of 2019, alongside a decrease in professional fees, including legal expenses.

Operating loss

Operating loss was €40.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 while Adjusted EBITDA loss was €28.3 million, decreasing by 35% and 47% on a year-over-year basis respectively, demonstrating meaningful progress on our path to profitability.

Cash Position

At the end of December 31, 2020, we had €304.9 million of cash on our balance sheet. This includes approximately €203 million of gross proceeds from the offering completed in December 2020.

GUIDANCE

Our focus continues to be on making further progress towards breakeven and we remain committed to reducing our Adjusted EBITDA loss in absolute terms in 2021 compared to 2020.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as well as the ensuing economic challenges result in substantial uncertainty concerning our operating environment and financial outlook. This may be further exacerbated by instances of social protests or political disruption, as experienced in Nigeria over the course of October 2020 as part of the End SARS campaign or in Uganda in January 2021 where the internet was suspended ahead of the presidential election.

These external factors, combined with a continued focus on cost efficiency and, to a lesser extent, the continued effects of the business mix rebalancing, are likely to drive continued volatility across some of our key performance indicators.