Not long ago, many wouldn’t consider purchasing online. Then came the covid-19 pandemic, which required many to stay within their homes’ confines even when they needed to access services. For different courier platforms like Jumia, Glovo, and Safeboda, they saw a spike in orders as customers no longer had the luxury of eating their favourite meals from restaurants or going to malls to do their shopping as part of restrictions in an effort to avoid crowding in public places.
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Uganda has several online delivery platforms but today we’ll take a look at the two that are currently on-demand, Jumia and Glovo. Before we dive into the differences between the apps, let’s look at their similarities.
Both are online delivery platforms with applications where customers can shop and access different services like restaurants, pharmacies, supermarkets, liquor stores, and order for a variety of items all according to the customer’s preference.
Jumia vs Glovo
Delivery costs
Price drives the decision a customer will make or what their preference will be in most circumstances. Usually, the customer will look at how much they will spend while making a purchase before they look into factors like quality and quantity. In terms of online shopping, delivery costs play an enormous role as high costs chase customers who prefer to physically purchase their products.
When you compare both apps, Glovo delivers at costs not more than UGX 3000 despite your location. The courier service does not go above this price despite the weight of your order or your distance.
Jumia charges differently for relying on different factors like the size of your order, proximity and number of items. The costs tend to be higher the further you are from Kampala.
Glovo is the better app for customers who, in spite of their location, make enormous savings on delivery costs.
Time of delivery
Online deliveries can be tricky when it comes to how long it will take for you to receive what you ordered. The suppliers give you an array of minutes, hours or days to tell you how long you should wait according to the item you ordered. The traffic on the way can cause delay, distance from the place you order, stock availability and many more, other aspects that are taken into account as they specify the time.
As we compare both platforms for items that they both deliver like food and groceries, Glovo indicates that it delivers within 40 minutes to an hour.
For Jumia, in situations like orders for food deliveries could also take between 40 to 70 minutes. However, despite cases where both companies may deliver beyond the stipulated time, Glovo is more consistent with keeping time.
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Number of vendors
Looking at this aspect, in any field of business, customers are usually more drawn to shops or places that offer more options or sets of alternatives. This is simply because part of human nature is just having a change in preferences as time goes on which is easier to do if there are many to choose from. The platform has the capability of higher customer satisfaction and better competition through the accommodation of more vendors.
In this category, Jumia is superior with a high number of sellers in different categories like electronics, clothes, shoes, home appliances and so much more. The digital platform offers a wider variety of items through its vendors making them more accessible to customers. All in one place, customers have access to various items.
Glovo on the other hand has fewer vendors listing mostly the popular restaurants, shops, supermarkets and pharmacies that are known to customers. In the same aspect, it offers fewer items because of the small number of vendors.
Payment options
One of the most ideal features of online shopping for most platforms is the freedom customers can get through payment options. The applications that stand out or are most frequently used usually accept a variety of payment options from customers allowing them to cater to everyone.
Jumia offers a number of options to its customers, like using mobile money, debit/credit cards or cash on delivery. However, with the mobile money option, customers can simply use Jumia pay for Airtel and MTN networks.
Without the custom mobile money option, Glovo offers the same payment methods as Jumia.
Number of services
Here, we take a dive into the offerings of both companies. How many services customers can access through each company.
Jumia is an online shopping platform where you can shop the widest selection of electronics, fashion, home appliances, kid’s items and more in Uganda and have them shipped directly to your home or office at your convenience. In addition to shopping, it offers services like Jumia Food and Jumia Travel.
Glovo is a service that purchases, picks up, and delivers products ordered through its mobile app. The company has the vision to be a lifestyle app with all urban services available easily through its smartphone application. Food delivery service remains its most popular service. Other services available on the app include Groceries, Pharmacy, Desserts, Courier and anything else you might need.
Proximity
Distance is a very important aspect to look at when you consider online delivery. At the point you need to receive your delivery, it’s important to know whether the chosen courier service has a wide geographical reach and can find you in our said location.
Even though it is more likely that the further away from the city, the less geographical reach most delivery companies have. Some businesses go out of their way to ensure that they can reach as far as upcountry to serve customers from all over the country.
Jumia delivers within and around Kampala’s surrounding areas. It also delivers upcountry in different parts of Uganda where it has stations.
Glovo however seems to maintain its coverage within and around Kampala’s surrounding areas for now.
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