Jumia, the African ecommerce giant, has partnered with Shell service station franchisee Vivo Energy. The partnership could mean more than 2,000 Shell and Engen service stations across 23 countries could become Jumia pick up points for online click-and-collect shoppers.

The new partnership will be trialled in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Morocco and Senegal. If successful it will be rolled out across the rest of Vivo Energy’s network. It is a big step forward for Jumia, which had a successful IPO earlier this year but continues to lose money. Two of its major operational headaches are consumers paying with cash and the high cost of final mile delivery. Jumia has partnered with Mastercard and is already transitioning its customers to its own online payment platform to reduce cash-based sales. The Vivo Energy partnership offers a scaleable, quick to implement way to simplify delivery (and potentially pass on valuable cost savings to customers to widen its consumer appeal).

For Vivo Energy, it is yet another partnership to turn its service station sites into hubs in their own right. Already, the company partners with major pharmacy chains such as Goodlife and fast food brands such as KFC and Pizza Hut.