Consumer Characteristics, Product Characteristics and Choice of E-commerce Platforms in Kenya
Abstract
Overtime e-commerce businesses have gone from their simple initial stages to becoming a threat
to the more established, big retail businesses. E-commerce and all its related processes can be
unified with traditional business processes to enhance quality of products and services in a
company, hence stimulating marketplace performance. This research study was aimed at assessing
the the factors influencing customer preference for e-commerce platforms in Kenya. The study
was guided by the Theory of Bounded Rationality, Theory of Trust formation and Decomposed
Theory of Planned Behavior. The researcher employed a cross-sectional survey-based research
design. The researcher targeted people who have access to internet only and are computer literate.
Simple random sampling design was used to sample 50 Kenyans seeking services at Huduma
Centers and Immigration offices. Questionnaires were used to collect data. Descriptive and
inferential statistics were used for analyzing quantitative data using SPSS version 24. Data were
presented in the form of tables. The findings show that: there was a positive correlation between
consumer characteristics and consumers’ choice of e-commerce, a significant correlation between
consumer perceptions and consumers’ choice of e-commerce and a positive correlation between
product characteristics and consumers’ choice of e-commerce. The research paper concludes the
main factors influencing customer preference for e-commerce platforms in Kenya are consumer
characteristics, consumer perceptions and product characteristics. The researcher recommends
that; e-commerce sellers should consider the demographics of their target customers when
planning their marketing strategies. E-commerce sellers should also be creative when designing
their websites by ensuring that they offer standard and the right product as ordered by the
consumer. They should also offer various products and brands and emphasize more on
convenience of shopping online.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Subject
Consumer Characteristics, Product Characteristics and Choice of E-commerce Platforms in KenyaRights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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