Since the premiere of our On-Demand Services (ODS) offering through the Jumia Food app, this space has seen rapidly evolving stakeholder demands that have kept us constantly pursuing improvements in the consumer experience. While there are many similarities in the customer journey when comparing this platform to our e-commerce marketplace, everything happens much faster with ODS.
For example, there's only so much time a hungry customer is willing to spend looking up restaurants and waiting for a meal to be delivered. This means there’s limited time to fix any errors made along the way. We have to do a lot to satisfy customers and stay ahead of the competition.
Breaking down the consumer journey
After careful assessment, team members agreed that the discovery phase was of utmost importance since customers are more likely to close the app if they can't find what they want. However, it's hard to be 100% in this area because, occasionally, customers may want to try something different.
Accordingly, we focus on keeping their favorite options close while understanding the primary reasons they might look for an alternative. These typically include:
The desire to find the nearest restaurant, especially if the customer is currently distant from their favorite restaurant while ordering.
The need for a cheaper option.
A desire to retry a dish they've ever had or to have a friend try it.
The pursuit of a revered dish from a highly acclaimed establishment.
With these considerations in mind, we designed our interface so that customers can view options matching these reasons as quickly as possible. We also complement these categorization efforts with homepage quick links, a more accurate predictive search feature, and ultra-specific filtering capabilities. Additionally, the app has more relevant notifications about flash discounts and promotions and a detailed order history page with a reorder option.
We also ensure that we can make delivery time (ETA) promises to the customer before they place an order. Delivery time needs to be short,but still realistic. Therefore, we work hard to determine the shortest possible route for each order, the average time a rider needs in varying traffic situations, and the time it takes a restaurant to prepare each dish.
Our team added a more detailed visibility feature so the customer may track the order’s progress through various stages. We also have an "Active Order" section as an order-tracking shortcut on the homepage. Additionally, we have contingencies for different situations such as when the desired item is unavailable, a delivery agent is delayed, or orders are mixed up.
We instituted preemptive measures like a continuously updated out-of-stock menu, final availability check before order confirmation, maximum quantity stipulations, automatic cart revision and a clearer late delivery report flow. This helps ensure that non-critical issues are easily solved without involving the customer support team, which leaves them with enough time to address more complex requests.
There are also some reparative measures like vouchers, store credit, refunds and substitute orders. And as always, we offer an assortment of easy and secure payment options with fraud detection measures to minimize any checkout-related issues.
Catering to other stakeholders
Improvement efforts quickly hit the ceiling if the vendors aren't also given on-platform features that simplify their business operations. Our New brand visibility options include special partnerships where vendors can get their best daily offers displayed strategically for maximum exposure and conversions.
In addition to a dedicated sponsorship placements section, we micro-target messages on vendor cards like in-depth ratings, amount saved for Prime subscribers, and available discounts. We also went omni-channel with promotional communication, covering email, SMS and more.
The results so far
After numerous app reviews, research sessions with focus groups, and consistent monitoring of feature performance, we have achieved the following:
Better delivery time estimation.
A higher percentage of orders delivered on time, thanks to better optimization when allocating delivery fleet resources relative to order volume forecasts and real-time changes.
A successful rollout of a new cuisine-focused view and a revamped Dark Stores menu.
Though some of these consumer experience enhancements were triggered by the pandemic-driven e-commerce boom, we are always following customer, partner and broader industry trends to deliver the latest solutions on par with international standards.
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Mohamed Ibrahim Lead Product Owner of Jumia Food Consumer Apps
Mohamed Ibrahim is the Lead Product Owner of Jumia Food consumer apps and Myjumia. He joined the tech industry because of his passion for tech, building innovative products and consistently trying to find solutions to problems that face us.
He joined Jumia in August 2021 and, prior to that, worked in multiple startups in Egypt.