Vinod Goel speaks on e-commerce journey in Kenya, lessons and successes

For a small business owner in a town far from Nairobi, restocking a shop can mean closing for the day, travelling to the city, searching for affordable goods and returning home hoping the trip was worth the time and money.

Vinod Goel, who oversees Jumia’s operations in Kenya and Uganda, believes technology can change that equation.

For Goel, e-commerce is not merely about buying products on a phone. It is about changing how goods reach consumers, how small businesses find customers and how people in remote areas access products that may be expensive or difficult to find in their local shops.

Traditionally, buying a product has required a customer to travel to a shop. Digital payments have changed how money moves, but they have not necessarily eliminated the journey to the marketplace.

E-commerce reverses that arrangement, allowing customers to order products electronically and have them delivered or collected at designated locations.

Goel argues that this model reduces costs by cutting some of the intermediaries involved in traditional distribution.

In conventional retail, he explains, goods may pass through several distributors and wholesalers before reaching a shop. Each stage can add costs.

Online platforms, he says, can shorten that chain by connecting suppliers, sellers and consumers more directly.

The attraction is not limited to price. Online platforms can also offer a wider selection than a physical shop with limited shelf space.

For a customer outside Nairobi, this could mean accessing products that are not readily available in nearby shops without making a costly journey to a larger town.

Yet the promise of convenience and lower prices does not automatically translate into access. Customers still need reliable delivery services, information about the platform and confidence that the products they order will arrive as expected.

Goel describes the last leg of delivery as one of the practical difficulties facing online retailers. The economics of such deliveries can be challenging when individual orders are scattered across distant communities.

Jumia's response, according to Goel, has been to establish collection points closer to customers. He says the company had built about 300 pick-up stations at the time of the interview, with plans to increase the number to at least 800 that year and potentially 2,000 the following year.

The idea is to place collection points in towns that people from surrounding villages already visit for work, shopping or other activities.

Rather than requiring a delivery vehicle to reach every customer's doorstep, parcels can be transported to these locations for collection.

Customers are notified through text messages, email and the company's app when their orders arrive.

Goel says the company intends to expand the network as it seeks to reach more customers beyond major urban centres.

For the thousands of businesses selling through online platforms, the opportunity extends beyond reaching individual shoppers. He argues that the platform gives small enterprises access to a wider market while providing services that would otherwise be expensive for an individual business to establish, including customer access and logistics.

“You just need your product,” Goel says of the opportunity to begin selling through the platform.

However, he cautions that operating online is not a shortcut to business success.

Sellers must maintain product quality, price their goods competitively and fulfil orders promptly. Customers who receive inferior products or experience delays can choose to shop elsewhere, while returns can eat into a seller's earnings.

Goel describes the discipline required as demanding, particularly for traders accustomed to selling through traditional retail channels.

Jobs, skills and the next generation of entrepreneurs

Goel notes that former Jumia employees have gone on to hold leadership positions in Kenyan start-ups, arguing that experience in e-commerce can help build entrepreneurial capacity.

The company has also developed JForce, a commission-based programme through which individuals help customers place orders.

The model is intended to serve people who may not have smartphones, reliable internet access or the confidence to navigate online shopping independently. A JForce agent can help such customers select products and place orders, earning a commission when business is completed.

Goel says the programme has attracted participants from different backgrounds, including students and people who use their social networks to find customers.

For all the opportunities associated with online shopping, one obstacle remains particularly difficult to overcome: fraud.

Consumers who have lost money to fake websites, misleading sellers or undelivered orders may be reluctant to transact online again.

Goel acknowledges that scams damage confidence in the wider e-commerce sector, including established platforms whose names can be imitated by fraudulent operators.

He says Jumia monitors websites that resemble its own and works to have fraudulent pages taken down, either directly or through the relevant authorities.

He also urges consumers to exercise caution when shopping online. The company recommends using its official app, which Goel describes as safer than accessing the service through a web browser.

Goel argues that stronger safeguards are needed to protect online shoppers, alongside clearer rules for businesses operating in the sector.

Kenya's e-commerce market also faces questions about taxation, consumer protection and the treatment of businesses operating locally compared with those shipping goods from abroad.

Goel argues that policymakers should consider the economic value retained in Kenya when regulating online commerce.

He contrasts businesses with local operations, which he says contribute through employment, taxes and other economic activity, with overseas sellers that can supply Kenyan customers without maintaining the same physical presence in the country.

He offers figures to illustrate the difference, estimating that a sale worth Ksh.1,000 through an overseas operator may leave Ksh.100 in the Kenyan economy, compared with Ksh.700 for a locally established operator.

His broader argument is that policy should account for the different ways online businesses contribute to the domestic economy, while ensuring that consumers benefit from competition and affordable products.

According to Goel, efforts were under way to work with umbrella business organisations to help establish an e-commerce association that could represent the sector and contribute to policy discussions.

Such an organisation could provide a forum for addressing shared concerns, although its effectiveness would depend on the interests represented and the practical measures it helps advance.

Despite the challenges, Goel believes Kenya has significant room for e-commerce to grow.

He points to the combination of digital payments, mobile connectivity and the difficulty many consumers face accessing a broad range of goods locally.

Goel's ambition is for customers to be able to order products locally without travelling abroad or relying on informal intermediaries whose reliability they cannot establish.

That future, however, depends on the sector's ability to address the problems that still discourage consumers from shopping online.