French supermarket giant Carrefour has signed a deal with leading African online retailer Jumia in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Kenya. The agreement means that Carrefour products will be distributed via Jumia platform.

Jumia and Carrefour have signed an agreement for the distribution of Carrefour products in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Kenya. Carrefour is present in Cameroon (in Douala, and shortly in Yaoundé), Côte d’Ivoire (3 stores in Abidjan) and Kenya (six stores in Nairobi). It will open its first store in Uganda in early 2019. It does not yet operate in Senegal, where French rival Auchan is the standout market leader.

Several Kenyan retailers, including Chandarana Foodplus and Naivas, offer online grocery purchase in Kenya, although it is very immature in francophone West Africa. The new partnership, which starts operations in 2019, offers significant benefits to both Jumia and Carrefour. For Carrefour, whose rate of store openings in sub Saharan Africa is far below the 100 stores it wanted by 2020, the Jumia deal offers a chance to expand both nationally and into up to the 14 countries where Jumia operates. For Jumia, struggling to achieve the penetration and repeat buying it needs to scale, a gold standard grocery partner provides a valuable point of engagement for middle class consumers.

Although precise details of the deal are thin, we believe that Jumia will offer a limited range of core Carrefour-branded products, and none that require refrigeration. The likely categories will include household care, personal care, canned food, dried foods (including products such as rice and pasta), sauces, dressings and seasonings.