From the CEO’s Desk - Welcome to December; It’s almost the end of 2023!

Hi there,

Happy new month!

I was waiting somewhat impatiently for this new month to reach out to you. I even took time to pen down notes of things I wanted to share with you as they were happening.

What should you expect from this month’s newsletter? Let’s see. opens notes**

Inside gossip? Yes!

New updates? Absolutely yes!

The ones they did not send me to tell you? Maybe!

But first of all, December is here and Christmas is just around the corner. Congratulations on making it to the end of the year! You’ve been grinding hard to grow your business all year, and you probably had some ups and downs, but here you are and it’s okay to celebrate and have a good time because you’re doing amazing. Take some time off this month, have a great time with your friends & family, rest, and prepare for the new year.

For me and the team, we’re getting ready to do something like this. But while that is happening, we’re still cooking up new things that we’re hoping will help you end the year on a great high.

Alright, let’s get into it!

Black Friday & Cyber Monday

Q4 is usually our busiest quarter and this one especially has been very intriguing. One thing that makes Q4 interesting for any retail or commerce business is the sales period - Black Friday, Cyber Monday or Christmas Sales.

Let me share some interesting numbers with you. So, Shopify recorded $9.3B during the Black Friday & Cyber Monday (BFCM) sales. On Bumpa, about N400m was recorded over the same period, which is about 3X of what was recorded in 2022 (whew! Still have a long way to go). As much as there was growth year-on-year, this number was only slightly above any other typical good weekend. This curiosity led us to contact many of you and we noticed something that shows a big difference between Black Friday sales globally and in Nigeria - we expected less sales due to the unfavourable FX rates we have seen this year, but also, Nigerian businesses give discounts but not for just that ‘Black Friday’, but as a larger end of year sales that typically run into the first or second week of December.

This was why…

We started the Super Sellers Challenge, which runs till the 9th of December - to accommodate your sales period. If you are yet to opt in for that, you should asap, because you're not only going to be selling, but you’ll also stand the chance to win amazing stuff!

Join the Challenge

Also, we sponsored a Triciabiz Bootcamp for Black Friday…and it was 🔥

A lot of people have talked about how Triciabiz is the business coach of all business coaches, and from the feedback we saw from the people who attended the bootcamp that was held from the 18th to the 20th, I have to say I agree. Triciabiz shared some never-before-seen marketing and sales tips that I personally think every business owner should know.

The good part is I was able to convince Ayo, our marketing lead, to part with the 3-hour packed marketing video and he’s willing to, but I could only convince him to share it with paying subscribers. He said to sweeten the deal, you can get a 30% discount on any subscription at all by applying the code BLACKFRIDAY23 when you’re ready to pay - this is our own Black Friday Sales oh and it ends soon.

What else happened in the extremely hot month of November

Well, it was extremely hot. LOL. I experienced it firsthand this month but it was for a very interesting reason, and this brings me to my first gist of the month’s happenings.

How about a visit from me?

Recently, I started visiting our customers to get to know more about their business needs and how Bumpa can be the tool that caters to every single need. While that might sound like a lofty dream, picture a system that is seamlessly tied to every aspect of your business operations, and helps your business function like a well-oiled machine. Yes, that’s the goal here.

Now, back to my gist. I even documented some of my processes in this cool video here. There’s never any end to learning and understanding businesses, which is why it’s also important to see how things are done firsthand. The goal of this is to make sure that we understand what you need as a merchant, and can build a solution that fixes that need. I’d love to actually visit you sometime as well, so if you wouldn’t mind me checking in on you and spotlighting your business(es) on my Instagram, go and comment in the video above and I’ll add you to the list. Just say something like “Hi Kelvin, come see us!”.

Bumpa Business Academy is finally live. Efiwes, are you ready?

Let me just tell you now, that if you’re a business owner who wants all the sauce, the rizz, the swag and the knowledge of everything about running a business, Bumpa Business Academy should be the first website you visit every day. The courses there have been carefully curated to cover every important aspect that you need to know about running a business, whether you’re just starting out or you've been in the game for a while. And they’re all free. I’d advise that you check out the guides, templates, and courses, start studying them and get a badge you can show off to the world when you’re done!

Start Now - https://academy.getbumpa.com/

What’s coming in the (hopefully, cooler) month of December

Okay, November is done and dusted. It’s time to look ahead.

First of all, I do hope that we finally get some harmattan, so that it can finally start to feel like it’s Christmas! For us at Bumpa, we still have a few things heading your way before we wrap up the year.

Something new to how you record sales and collect payments

So, there are two things we always try to do with every single feature that is released on Bumpa. The first is to make sure that the most important person to us - you, our customer - finds it useful and that it improves the way you run your business operations. The second thing is to make sure that it also impacts the most important people to you - your own customers - in a seamless way that makes them come back to you.

And that’s why I’d love to tell you about the new features coming this December (right in time for Christmas shoppers!) which is our Point of Sale and Wallet.

The Point of Sale is for businesses with physical locations while the Wallet is going to absolutely change the way you collect payments - especially bank transfers. If you think you’ve seen ease before, then get ready to be mind-blown because it doesn’t get easier than this.

I’m not supposed to say much about this (so that the product team doesn’t break my head before they can announce it) but based on the fact that I’m supposed to bring juicy gist to you, there’s nothing juicier than this for December - it’ll be our Christmas gift to you.

Before I go, here’s a quick app hack for easier selling in December…

So, I don’t know if you’ve checked out this particular feature but I won’t tell you what it is here. I instead made a video to show you to show you how it works and how you’ll apply it to your business.

Here’s a hint though: it’ll help you collect payment and customer information from your customers, without them having to even visit the website.

Watch Video

Make sure to tell me what you think in the comment section. I’ll be waiting to hear from you!

I’ll leave you with this…

We are building Bumpa to be with you through your entrepreneurship journey - and we will keep cheering you on because you are amazing and you keep showing up!

Till I come back to you by the end of the year,

Cheers!

Kelvin Umechukwu,

Co-founder & CEO,

Bumpa.