SKYRUN's Cross-Border Breakthrough: A Success Story in the Nigerian Market with Jumia

SKYRUN, a cross-border home appliance brand originating from Jiangsu, China and rapidly growing in Nigeria, has shown remarkable growth and influence in its trajectory through its partnership with Jumia, Africa's leading e-commerce platform. Guo Nannan, SKYRUN's Deputy General Manager, spoke highly of Jumia's influence in the African market from a seller's perspective in an interview with Jumia.

As the parent company of SKYRUN, Huihong Foreign Economics was founded in 2009, which is a member unit under Jiangsu Province's largest foreign trade enterprise, Soho Holding Group. The company is committed to building a leading multinational supply chain enterprise based on physical manufacturing. As early as 2005, Huihong International (Nigeria) Industrial Park was invested and established in Calabar Free Trade Zone (CFTZ), Cross River State, Nigeria, which was a key moment for SKYRUN in the incubation stage. Nowadays, SKYRUN has become one of the top ten famous brands in Nigeria, with a market share of 40%, and has become a widely known brand of home appliances in the region.

During Black Friday 2023, SKYRUN's sales and orders on Jumia showed significant growth, especially for several newly launched TV products, which achieved remarkable sales results on the Jumia platform. After 18 years of deep cultivation in the Nigerian market, how does SKYRUN grow to be a top 10 brand in the region? Why does SKYRUN, which has a dealer network covering all states in Nigeria, choose to join Jumia, and how will SKYRUN plan its brand development in the future?

As one of the pioneers who traveled to Nigeria in 2005 to open up new horizons, Nancy Guo brings the backstory of SKYRUN, an African cross-border brand. in April 2005, the then Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo visited China, and the two sides signed a number of documents of cooperation, including the establishment of a home appliance industrial park in Nigeria. in December of the same year, the first phase of the industrial park was completed and started production. this rapid progress attracted a lot of attention in Nigeria. In December of the same year, the first phase of the industrial park was completed and put into production, and this rapid progress attracted wide attention in Nigeria. SKYRUN played a key role in the completion and production of the industrial park, and was known as "Skyrun Speed" by the local people.

It took SKYRUN five years to go from product to brand. After the completion of the industrial park, SKYRUN began to cooperate with Shinco Air Conditioning to produce its first home appliance, shinco air conditioner. With the deepening of production and operation in Nigeria, SKYRUN's product line was gradually enriched, including air conditioners, water dispensers, refrigerators and freezers. In order to unify its brand image, in 2011 SKYRUN united all the products it produced under the brand name of SKYRUN. SKYRUN's brand name originated from its registered name in Nigeria, a relatively simple choice of name that has become synonymous with high-quality home appliances in Nigeria and has a strong brand influence.

On the Jumia platform, SKYRUN's brand philosophy "Better Life" runs through every product, which reflects the mission that SKYRUN utilizes its products to practice. According to Nancy Guo, SKYRUN's star products currently include refrigerators and freezers, which have become a necessity in the hot environment of Nigeria.

SKYRUN brand TVs saw significant sales growth in the Nigerian market during Jumia Black Friday 2023. Nancy Guo said, "We always pursue product excellence and brand excellence, insist on cooperation with first-class suppliers at home and abroad, and are committed to improving the quality of our products, competing in the market on the basis of quality, and giving full play to our strengths." Since 2005, SKYRUN has established a marketing network in Nigeria across 36 states and the Capital Territory of the country. According to the different geographical areas, SKYRUN divides Nigeria into four sales regions, which are located in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, Kano in the north, Lagos in the southwest and Calabar in the southeast. Each of these four sales regions manages a part of the state area.

Currently, SKYRUN has developed more than 400 active dealers in these four sales regions, including local large-scale supermarkets, individual home appliance operators and foreign enterprises. The deep plowing in the Nigerian market has enabled SKYRUN to establish a mature offline sales network." Under the development of the times, especially the impact of the epidemic on the offline real economy and the country's call for the development of new models and new business models, we, as a foreign trade enterprise and a benchmark enterprise for supply chain operation in Nigeria, must develop both online and offline channels to realize three-dimensional operation." Guo Nannan said that SKYRUN chose to lay out the e-commerce platform in line with the trend of the times, and choosing Jumia is undoubtedly a wise decision. After trying to build an independent site, due to the lack of online operation experience and the rapid development of offline channels at that time, SKYRUN's support for the independent site was insufficient and failed to build it successfully. After that, SKYRUN chose to join Jumia in 2020, and even though the online operation experience was insufficient, the company chose to cooperate with a representative operation company while training its own operation team. One year later, SKYRUN officially started to operate the Jumia platform on its own.

Nan Nan Guo said, "Jumia's Chinese and Nigerian teams have given us a lot of support in terms of operations, which includes participation in various activities on the platform and promotion of the brand." SKYRUN's category page rankings are always at the top, all these are the important support and help from Jumia.

With the operational support of Jumia platform, SKYRUN's scale and market share have been growing year by year. Guo Nannan pointed out that SKYRUN's publicity and promotion mainly focus on marketing channels, while the company focuses on improving product quality and providing cost-effective products to achieve differentiated competition. For online publicity and promotion, the support provided by the Jumia platform plays an important role in enhancing brand awareness. Looking ahead to 2024, SKYRUN plans to expand its small home appliance product line, both based on future product planning and on advice given by Jumia based on market trends in Nigeria.

SKYRUN plans to launch small home appliance products including electric fans, air fryers, sockets and kettles, etc. SKYRUN is also considering registering patents for some of its products in Nigeria to ensure compliance and protect innovation.SKYRUN is already competitive in terms of product specialization and cost control. SKYRUN has set up a specialized small household appliance division, and the development of the first batch of products is in the final stage, which is expected to be launched on the Jumia platform after the Spring Festival next year.

In addition to store operations on the Jumia platform, SKYRUN also plans to cooperate with Jumia on a deeper level. With the further expansion of Jumia's platform, the demand for warehousing, logistics and distribution resources is also increasing. Given SKYRUN's vast warehousing resources and mature logistics supply chain in Nigeria, there is much potential for cooperation between the two in the cross-border e-commerce sector. These collaborations will further strengthen SKYRUN's position in the Nigerian market and also bring new opportunities for Jumia's development.