Is Jumia engaging in false advertising?

For those who don’t know, Jumia.co.ke has been running a campaign known as the mobile week megathon, where they offer ‘crazy discounts’ on selected phones. Mbisha ndio hii.
http://static.jumia.co.ke/cms/Jumia%20MW/KE_W21_LP_ALLDEALS_01_(1).jpg
The campaign has been running from 2nd and will end on the 8th. Anyway, yours truly has gotten tired of android and was thinking of trying Windows mobile. So I’ve been thinking of getting the Microsoft Lumia 535. My research so far has informed me that this phone’s price is in the sh 12000-14000 range. Safaricom for example is selling it at sh12,999…tuseme 13000.
Jumia on the other hand is selling the phone at 12,499 (again, tuseme 12500), a ‘massive 50% discount’, claiming to have reduced the price from the ‘normal’ 24,900 to 12,500.
My question is: isn’t this false advertising? Are there laws against this kind of advertising in Kenya, ama anyone can just make whatever claims they want? Because I’m very sure the price won’t shoot to 24k when this campaign ends. Have you noticed any other example of this false advertising? Over to you wajuaji wa kijiji.

Well, you’ll only be gongwad if you have not done your homework well. Such tactics are targeted at people who are simply clueless & don’t take time to ask / research and sadly that is a lot of people.

Take for instance Laura Oyier and her infamous 800 bob mineral water. She can cut the price to 50 bob (the normal price range) and then promote it as a MASSIVE 94% price reduction which would appeal to people who are excited by those percentages and don’t know the kawaida price.

I think legally, nothing is stopping you from doing such marketing shenanigans. The onus is on the consumer to do their due diligence.

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Maybe their price is 24.5k.

In Kenya, the only price controls are those for fuel, otherwise the other sectors are left to the market forces.

Thus, you can’t say it is false advertising, neither can you sue.

Ok even if they’re doing nothing wrong from a legal point of view, is it ethically correct?

@chalky white it depends on how u look at it…for example Indian businessmen will have a crazy offer like “buy one get four free”…Then u end up with five shirts of the same colour or print like and people
start asking “…Kwani huyu @ol monk ako na shati moja tu…No wonder hana girlfriend” (ok hio part ya girlfriend nimeongeza…but u get my point?):cool::cool:

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Old monk hujaambiwa pouwa!

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You need to remember that in Capitalism, ethics are conveniently thrown out of the window if they do not suit the shareholders interests and they are not good for the bottom line.

Did you watch this heart-wrenching Jicho Pevu? http://bit.ly/1JoiKSd

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Ferk ethics- they don’t pay bills.

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Hehe ok, I guess it does depend on how one looks at it. I feel like they’re taking advantage of customers. I think jumia is attempting to achieve what Amazon has done in the US. Amazon has dominated e-commerce in the US to the extent that US consumers just go straight to Amazon.com whenever they want to do online shopping. Most of them no longer compare prices, they just shop at Amazon under the assumption that they sell their products at rock bottom prices.

I guess it’s all about the bottomline. No I didn’t watch that Jicho pevu expose, but I’ve bookmarked it for later.

And then… Maybe Amazon got to that point through brilliant marketing, the so called ‘First Mover Advantage’ in that space and great ‘Economies of Scale’ which allow for tiny margins & hence the rock-bottom prices.

An entity can grow to be MEGA successful in its space but if anybody (usually the competition) feels aggrieved and they feel that this has been achieved through underhand tactics, they are allowed to raise their grievances with the relevant authorities, in our case the Competition Authority of Kenya, who will consider the facts & might declare you as Market Dominant and require some measures to be instituted eg. divesting some of the assets or splitting up the company, so as to achieve a fairer playing ground.

Some examples are US vs. Microsoft (1998) http://bit.ly/1KGMHKJ and Airtel vs. Safaricom (2015) http://bit.ly/1FxG8FM

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That Tecno Y4 is a complete rip off. I ordered it at 4,999 and now its costing 5,999. that’s a complete 1k ripoff. Lucky me I ordered 6pcs, different colours for resell and they were delivered at the cost of 4,999. I am shocked that they are now costing 1k more. :slight_smile:

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I guess Jumia is engaging in psychological games then. The thing about this kind of marketing is that the potential buyer focuses on what they’re ‘saving’, rather than making comparisons with competitors. In the example I gave (Lumia 535), one will be happy about the ‘50% discount’, meaning they’ll most probably even abandon the idea of comparing prices.

earlier in the year i was planning to buy a laptop from them since the specs looked good and i was desperate,they told me delivery takes 2-5 days i said fuck it let me do more research and compare prices,i got the same model at 2k less from arctic computer shop(warranty and all) so am sure those phones can be purchased at lower prices,watu wafanye due diligence

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Unless you are “touching a woman inappropriately at Embassava”, I believe there’s nothing like ethics if you want profits in business. Even cyber crime hackers are held in awe in Kenya…no one really follows up. AND when they do, its a few days behind bars and a fine

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Any other shop/online shop which offers better prices than jumia??

true, there is no ‘discount’ just a marketing gimmick to stir up the population to buy thier stuff. those phones are at market value i.e. hazijapanda na hazijashuka

coz of the exchange rate.

Jumia does nothing wrong. they are being smart in there marketing.

Dont pay high prices for your electronics.

I use this company based in the UK to Delivery to me direct to doorstep all inclusive of customs and taxes.

www.kenya-aircargo.com
www.facebook.com/amazon.ebay.kenya

I got an Iphone 6 for under 60k SHS.

Give them a call and try them. All other a second.

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