The Effect of Technology on Supply Delivery of Online Stores in Kenya

Abstract

Emergence of newer technology innovations and mobile-based technologies has contributed to purchasing power of consumers. The online platforms have increased information penetration and accessibility of goods and services. The study aimed to determine the effect of technology on supply delivery of online stores in Kenya. The study was guided by two objectives: To determine the effect of technology on supply delivery for online stores in Kenya and to determine the challenges facing technology applied for supply delivery for online stores in Kenya. The study was guided by the TAM Model, systems theory and resource based theory. The study adopted descriptive research design in explaining the effect of technology on supply delivery for the online stores in Kenya. The target population of the study was 18 online stores in in Kenya. Since this was a small population, a census was used to sample two managers from each of the 18 online stores and therefore the sample size was 36 respondents. Both primary and secondary data were used in the study. Primary data was collected using a structured questionnaire while secondary data was collected from literature relevant to the study. The study used both descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze data based on the objectives. The study found that a positive effect was found between the types of technology (transportation management system, seamless technology, transactional processing technology and radio frequency identification) and supply delivery. The study concluded that the more the technologies were used in the online stores, supply delivery improved. The study also concluded that supply delivery in the stores was good, though was faced by challenges which hindered effective delivery. The study concluded that the major challenges that faced the online stores were customer ordering products being unresponsive upon delivery of the orders, complains about the period of time taken to deliver the ordered goods, lack of adequate carriers to deliver ordered goods to high costs associated with online supply delivery. The study recommends that the online stores needed to invest more in the transportation management system, seamless technology, transactional processing technology and radio frequency identification technologies to improve their supply delivery. The study also recommends that the stores needed to outsource only the goods and services they lacked and could not be able to provide in their firms to reduce costs. The study suggested that other researchers can undertake a similar study on the same subject in other countries that have online stores for comparison both regionally and globally.