The role of M-pesa in enabling e-commerce in Kenya

Life in the 21st century has drastically changed with the introduction of affordable internet, smartphones and computers which has revolutionized most industries especially the retail industry. In the last decade, retail has changed the most with shopping being reduced to a press of a button without requiring consumers to visit the traditional brick and mortar stores enabling them shop from anywhere in the world at the comfort of their homes. For e-commerce to be possible, there must be a payment option to facilitate the sale so with the transformation of the retail industry, the financial industry also took advantage to provide the needed services. As the transition to e-commerce took place the worldwide, Kenya has also adopted and even though e-commerce in the East African nation is still in its early stages and there is a huge demand for it mostly in the urban areas and amongst the young people. The main purpose of this thesis is to study the role M-pesa, a mobile transfer platform, has played in enabling e-commerce in Kenya. This thesis will study a case study of an online retailer in Kenya to get a snapshot of the e-commerce industry with an aim to find out the role of M-pesa