The convenience of having goods delivered to your doorstep is a very attractive aspect of e-commerce for Africa’s consumers. The current reality, however, is that the cost of delivering goods is on the rise in many countries in Africa, partly due to the price of petrol amongst other factors.
Unfortunately, the increased number of motorised fleets required to meet the ever-growing demand from online shoppers has negative effects on the environment. Mounting evidence suggests that there is a need to shift to cleaner energy sources for delivering goods if we are to achieve sustainable e-commerce growth. The need for change is clear.
How Jumia is tackling these problems
During our continuous search for logistics partners, we were introduced to SolarTaxi and learned about their efforts to introduce solar motorbikes and vehicles to the Ghanaian market. We embarked on a 3-month pilot program.
As usual, our team conducts robust analysis on data generated by our e-commerce platform. Using a smart capacity planning tool, we are able to juxtapose our projected increase in order volumes with SolarTaxi’s forecasted availability of bikes, over a period of up to six months.
We are then able to set milestones and plan on how to deploy these bikes while staying on track to meet our targets. At the moment, we have taken steps with Solar Taxi to have solar-powered bikes comprise at least 40% of our entire delivery fleet between 2022 and the beginning of 2023.
SolarTaxi is able to provide a comprehensive service that spans bike manufacturing, rider recruitment and training, and bike maintenance. By partnering with them, our team is able to focus on acquainting riders with our order delivery procedures.
The journey so far
Benefits of partnering with SolarTaxi
By getting more of our deliveries handled by solar-powered bikes, we are able to:
• Significantly lower our carbon footprint.
• Reduce the cost of delivery. Since our reliance on petrol has decreased, in the Ghanaian market alone, there has been a 70% increase in the cost of petrol within the last financial year
Solar bikes cost much less to recharge and therefore have a much lower impact on transportation costs over time.
At Jumia, we are always looking for more cost-effective and eco-friendly solutions to deliveries and other facets of our e-commerce operations. Our team will continue working towards innovating, discovering, and deploying these solutions at a much bigger scale.
