Retailer Jumia launches Nigeria's first e-commerce chatbot
Nigerian online retail firm Jumia has launched Jumia Bot, the country's first-ever e-commerce chatbot. Operating via Facebook's Messenger app, the bot is aimed at the 18 million users of the social media platform in Nigeria, and uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to offer an increasingly tailored shopping service over time. "JumiaBot has a very simple yet important objective: to help our customers get to personalised deals on Jumia Nigeria," said Juliet Anammah, CEO of the retailer.

Jumia introduces Nigeria’s first e-commerce robot, Jumia Bot

The Jumia Bot works by asking customers what they’re looking for and then using their answers to find the best offers

Jumia Bot, Nigeria's first e-commerce bot. (Image source: Jumia)

Jumia introduced JumiaBot on 2 October, Nigeria’s first e-commerce Bot. Using Jumia Bot, shoppers can order food, find fashion or electronic items and book hotels and flights by simply having an online conversation with the bot.

This innovation, powered and hosted by Facebook Messenger, will offer Nigeria’s 18 Million Facebook users the ability to get their own personal Jumia shopping assistant directly on Facebook Messenger. For example, to get access to the best hotel and airfare deals on Facebook Messenger, a user can simply provide his or her preferred date and destination to the bot in order to see the top recommendations.

Once a user’s criteria is selected, Jumia Bot will remember and use the research for his or her next order. The bot, developed by Jumia with support from Facebook, uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and natural learning process to hone in and learn users’ preferences over time in order to make recommendations that are personalised, timeline and useful to the shopper. The shopper’s post-order experience is also integrated into Jumia Bot. As a result, shoppers can track their orders and contact the Customer Service team for follow-up questions.

"When we launched Bot for Businesses on Messenger, our goal was to help companies make meaningful connections with their customers in order to meet their business goals.” said Emeka Afigbo, Head, Platform Partnerships, Middle East and Africa at Facebook. “We are excited to be part of the story in providing technology solutions to one of Africa’s leading e-commerce websites.”

In a statement on the significance of this new service, Juliet Anammah, CEO Jumia Nigeria said, “Jumia Bot has a very simple yet important objective: to help our customers get to personalised deals on Jumia Nigeria. We are pleased to unveil this new dimension of e-shopping for the Nigerian customer, and excited about helping to pioneer the next wave of local content and tech tools within our ecosystem.”