The Adaptation of Online Shopping in Kenya; Factors Affecting Online Shopping Intentions

Masese Duke, Mu LingLing

Abstract: Online shopping has created a link between retailers and consumers. Its a very efficient way of conducting business and it is a major success in many developed and developing countries. Kenya being a regional economic powerhouse, one would expect that the concept of online shopping would be easily adapted in large cities in the country; however thats not the case. The concept has failed to flourish in Kenyas big cities such Nairobi Mombasa and Kisumu. These cities boast of good infrastructure, high population and strong network coverage. It is thus surprising that the consumers in these regions would rather physically visit a retail store to buy stuff than shop online. This paper sought to find why this is the case. It adopts TRA, TPB and SCT theories to find online shopping intents of the shoppers in this region. It also sought to find the near future trend of online shopping in Kenya. The findings show that the future of online shopping is very bleak. There would be no improvement in online shopping intentions by the Kenyan shoppers. The paper recommends that more should be done to improve the peoples lively hood to increase their purchasing power

Keywords: Online shoppingTRATPBSCTE-commerce in Kenya