E Commerce is a growing industry and every country now have their own go-to portal. If the US has Amazon, Africa has Jumia. But I am not going to talk about online shopping in this article. Instead, I’ll be showing you how to make money with Jumia through their affiliate program which is one of the easiest ways to start an online business.
First, What Is Jumia?
Jumia is an eCommerce site that caters for consumers in these African countries;
- Cameroon
- Egypt
- Kenya
- Nigeria
- Ivory Coast
- Ghana
- Morocco
Founded in 2012, it’s basically a shopping platform that offers everything from household items to electronic devices as well as some reputable brands. Besides that, it also has dedicated services for travel bookings, food delivery and property trading.
The Application Process
Applying for the affiliate program is pretty straight-forward. Just go to the official site of the particular country and search at the footer for the ‘Become an Affiliate Partner’ link. A signup form like this will appear.
In one of the particulars, you are required to fill out a website address. To build a good quality website for an online business, I always recommend to go with a custom domain that’s created on a WordPress platform. That way, you can have more control over your marketing effort.
When you are done with that, submit the application and within minutes, you should receive a confirmation in your email. Using the login details, you will be able to access the affiliate dashboard that manages and monitor your sales activities.
How to Create and Use Affiliate Links
The first important thing to do is to set up is the payment details. The second, is to learn how to generate affiliate links for the product that you want to promote. This is fairly common for e-Commerce based type of affiliate programs since there are so many choices to choose from.
To create the link, you need to choose a particular Jumia store country that you are targeting. Then go to the product page that you are interested, copy the URL and paste it under ‘Page URL’.
The final URL that’s generated is an affiliate link and don’t worry if you don’t understand all the codes and numbers in it. The merchant will recognize that this is your unique link and reward a commission whenever someone make a purchase through it.
When it comes to using affiliate links, the best practice is to use it within a contextual format such as how-to articles or product reviews. It makes more sense (and less spammy) this way because offering information FIRST, can help viewers make a better decision rather than pushing them to buy something for the sake of earning.
That’s why it’s always good to establish an affiliate blog from the very beginning as you can constantly add helpful content and give people more reasons to buy through your recommendation vs from a marketer that doesn’t own a one. In terms of online search, your articles will produce a lot of keywords, allowing search engines to index and rank your website better too.
How Much Can You Make
Sales commissions vary between different countries and product categories. In general, fashion, beauty and sports appear to pay the highest, while others are within the lower range. For example, for Jumia Nigeria, one can earn up to 12% from fashion related sales alone.
Say, if you are promoting a pair of women’s heels worth $10,000 Naira, you could potentially make $1200 Naira which is about $3.8 USD. Now, this might not look like a big sum for now, but as you continue to drive traffic to your affiliate site, the earning will recur and accumulates over time. Soon, you could be earning $38 or even $380 USD on a monthly basis.
If you write a travel blog that shares about African holiday destinations, you may want to look into the Jumia Travel service that offers 5% for affiliates.
Hotels and flights are considered high ticket items which means, they are usually priced within the range of hundreds (USD) so even though, the percentage is smaller than physical products, you actually make more from one sales. That’s something profitable to think about.
The Pros
(1) First of all, I feel like Jumia offers a new breath of opportunity for the African people. Since most online scams are tied to these countries, it’s difficult to find anything that’s legitimate for those who are truly interested in making honest money online. Jumia, on the other hand, has a business model that can work without having to spend a ton of money.
(2) Whether you are a product seller or an affiliate marketer, the reputable and trusted network can help your business reach out to more people.
(3) Like most platforms, there is a variety of products to choose from, but what’s more important is that you need to find out what type of niche to target for your website. Hence the focus product very much depends on the nature of your topic. Is it a recipe blog or is it a fitness blog? You don’t want to be cross promoting things that aren’t related to one another.
(4) I also like the speedy process of the affiliate program application. It’s easy and you receive the approval within a couple of minutes. This means you can start earning almost immediately.
(5) Considering the fact that Africa is a popular tourist destination, I think Jumia Travel is a great platform to monetize from, whether it’s through affiliate marketing or listing a vacation property online.
The Cons
(1) Most of the customer reviews are quite brief and general. So you couldn’t actually retrieve a lot of information to make your product review more interesting. Even the product images from the vendors are quite limiting.
(2) The affiliate program is still in its infancy and there aren’t many resources that can guide you on how to promote products properly online. Beginners would need some help in this area otherwise, they could be doing it the wrong way and not earn anything.
Is Jumia Affiliate Program Worth Joining?
Overall, I would say yes. As online shopping continues to be part of our daily activities, more brands and customers will visit marketplaces like Jumia. This translates to more traffic and more sales opportunity as an affiliate marketer.
So if you are living within this region and interested in starting an online business, I highly encourage that you check out their platform. For more affiliate tools and resources, please visit my recommended training to learn how to build a WordPress website and pick the right online niche.
Have any thoughts or questions? Just leave me a comment below and I would get back to you as soon.
You may also be interested to read;
Aliexpress Affiliate Program Vs Amazon Associates – Which Is The Winner
Hi Cathy, I love your post.
Am having an interest to promote Jumia products. My question is – if I should advertise a product and refers a customer to a product page but eventually the visitor ends up buying different item, will I earn commission for that item sold?
That is how Amazon affiliate works, I don’t know if Jumia works the same way. I appreciate your honest response.
Hi there Godson. You’ll still be rewarded with the commission for the item sold. It works just like Amazon, except for a longer cookie duration which is 30 days. You can get more information from this user guide. Hope this helps.
Hi Cathy,
I have not yet heard of the Jumia marketplace or Jumia as an affiliate choice. You have done a clear review on how to start about this option and the idea of working as an affiliate for an out of country program.
As a Canadian, what issues in regards to promoting in Africa could I come across? How do you receive payment and are there any other challenges as a Canadian affiliate that I could encounter?
Thanks for your input.
Hi Monika, there will be some challenges to promoting Jumia from a different continent.
Signing up as an affiliate isn’t a problem. I live in Asia and it’s fairly easy to create an account. My concern is more towards understanding the shopping behavior, trends and customs of people from these countries.
How can you successfully convince and convert them into a buying customers if you don’t personally use the platform yourself? In addition, they only pay in the form of bank transfer, pick up check (not practical for a Canadian) and some other online payment system that is native to their countries.
When you come to think about these factors, it’s actually much easier to promote via Amazon Canada to the Canadian audience.
Hello Cathy,
Thanks so much for sharing these tips on making money with Jumia affiliate program. As someone who visits different African websites (I love African prints and fabrics) and not always impressed, I was excited to see a new affiliate program just for Africa and wanted to be an affiliate.
One thing I did not like in Jumia (as an affiliate) is that they have home delivery (which is normal) then the goods have to be paid cash by the client. I could not understand how me as an affiliate could follow my sales or refunds to get the right commissions earned.
Still I think this is a great affiliate program especially for those selling products for the African countries where Jumia is available. I’m sure Jumia will keep expanding and Africa has the population to make this a very large marketplace.
Hi Roamy, I wouldn’t be too worry about that part. The cash/card on delivery option is only limited to certain locations and I think the majority of shoppers will prefer the convenient method by ordering online. I would target this type of customers instead.
Hi Cathy,
I have never heard about Jumia before I read your post. It’s good to know more people living in different countries will have the opportunity to work from home and make money to support their family.
This is what is great about the internet. As more companies open to do business, there is always a way to get to people and offer new possibilities to improve on their financial situation.
I’m sure this review will help many people, especially those from the African continent, to start their own online business using this Jumia affiliate program.
I have heard about Jumia from friends who ordered products at one time or the other and had their order delivered on time. That was where I got my first impression about the company from, but never knew about the affiliate program at all. After several years of promoting other affiliate products online, I developed keen interest in being an affiliate. This is truly another Amazon for Africans with more than five years of delivering without failing. Kudos to Jumia!
Prior to joining as a Jumia affiliate, I would like to make one or two enquiries about the program. Apart from having a strong website built with WordPress themes, what other requirement would be necessary to succeed in promoting Jumia products?
Just like any other affiliate programs that involve physical products, your targeted audience are people who are ready to buy – they just need to know which one is better. Content creation based on targeted keyword searches is the cornerstone for attracting this audience to your affiliate site. Besides that, it helps to know what’s trending in the eCommerce market in the African continent, using social media and optimizing your site for mobile searches.
Hope this helps.
Cathy, Jumia is one of the affiliates programs that I had not heard about before I read your review.
I appreciate the way in which you portray the pros. You have managed a high sense of maturity, by pointing out that there are common linkage to scams or marketing technique that scare people from doing business online. However, Jumia obviously seems well-established with proven honesty.
As for the cons, brief customer reviews is often the common problem with some online retailers. I face that type of challenges too whenever I try to get more information about a certain product review.