Technology

What Kenyans order online while keeping purse strings tight to pay for goods in cash

online

e-Ensures says young shoppers are keen on technological advancements but insist on paying cash after delivery of an item. PHOTO | FOTOSEARCH

Electronics orders rule the charts of online shopping in Kenya with the phones taking the bulk of these requests, a new survey shows.

Data from leading online malls reveal that after mobile phones, computer hardware, television sets and home appliances pull the crowds in that order.

This week, a survey by a local research firm e-Ensures showed mobile phones emerged the most popular items bought online, taking up 58 per cent of all orders while fashion came a distant second at 18 per cent.

Samsung and Tecno phones were the popular brands with buyers, commanding more than 50 per cent of the phone orders online.

Most of the shoppers, according to the survey, bought a product after seeing an online advertisement while 21 per cent acquired the items on referrals from friends or relatives.

“About 75 per cent of the people in our survey are driven to purchase an item after seeing an online advert, followed closely by referrals from friends and family that account for 21 per cent,” said e-Ensures managing director Nathalie Maikere.

Other popular items on the buyers’ list include fashion items, accessories, and interior decoration materials.

In November and December, Jumia Kenya says, the most selling items were mobile phones followed by computer hardware, television, home appliances and fashion items.

Electronics accounted for 32 per cent of the most popular items sought out on PigiaMe with jobs and vehicles taking 17 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.

“A large population of our customers are young, tech-savvy, dynamic and in the middle-class, as such they have disposable income to spend, crave technological advancement and will keep upgrading their mobile phone, computer, television from time to time to keep up and as they settle down away from their parents,” said communications manager at Jumia Robinson Murage.

Traffic, PigiaMe says, has increased on its site by more than 60 per cent since the first quarter of 2016 due to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and improved online marketing.

“Overall, we observed a very exciting year of growth in the classifieds market in 2016,” PigiaMe ceo François de Chalendar.

Electronics were also flying off the shelves faster than other items on OLX Kenya platform owing to the small and medium enterprises using the platform to reach a wider market.

Out of the more than one million items posted on OLX last year 330,000 units were electronics that include home appliances and mobile phones.

Other items that were popular with buyers included vehicles, real estate properties and home décor.

“Vehicles were among the most sought after items on OLX in 2016. This was attributed to the lower price value of vehicles on this platform compared to various car dealerships. OLX is already capitalising on majority of Kenyans who prefer to buy already used vehicles,” said OLX in a statement.

Global malls

Online shoppers say the medium makes it convenient to compare product description and pricing. However 39 per cent of the respondents said that pricing was their main attraction in buying online where more than 70 per cent said they can spend a maximum of Sh20,000 on an e-order.

“The ability to shop anywhere and anytime, ability to locate more information about a product and the added product choice were among the key ratings,” the survey said.

Online shopping is increasingly becoming popular in Kenya for convenience and the wide selection of products it accords buyers.

While the global e-commerce malls have set shop in Kenya, the growth of e-commerce has also fuelled the development of local online based companies like Electrohub and MissKerre, a clothing e-shop.

Jumia and Chinese-backed Kilimall, the survey says, are the most sought after online shopping sites with a market share of 38 per cent and 22 per cent respectively.

Jumia is so far the most popular commanding a 40 per cent market share.

Cash on Delivery, e-Ensures says, remained the most popular mode of payment followed by mobile money supporting a recent finding by Geopoll that 51 per cent of Kenyans prefer paying for goods on delivery while 38 per cent use mobile money option to pay for goods bought online.

Credit cards

Only three per cent and two per cent prefer paying using credit and debit cards, respectively.

This is in contrast to 46 per cent of South Africans who pay for goods bought online using debit cards, with 25 per cent using credit cards and just 21 per cent opting cash on delivery. Mobile money option is unpopular at four per cent in South Africa.

“In Kenya where mobile money is hugely popular, it is the second preferred payment option after cash on delivery. This underscores the distrust most shoppers have with online stores. Most would rather pay once they have actually received the item,” the Geopoll report said.

Poverty and illiteracy

Trust, poverty and illiteracy remains a great challenge for online malls, as about 30 per cent of Kenyans are yet to make a purchase online owing to this reasons.

“Many of those who had not tried online shopping or those who were skeptical cited lack of trust, shipping costs, slow delivery, authenticity of the products, fear of payment methods, or because to some they do not understand how to make the online orders as the reasons they either don’t shop online or don’t frequently shop online,” said e-Ensures.