Potential growth and opportunities for Kenyan small sized firms online : E-business adoption for small boutiques and the new customer online

The purpose of this thesis is to identify the online growth opportunities for the small sized firm in Kenya. Kenya is the most developed nation in East-Africa. E-commerce is a rapidly rising trend in developing nations, that provides small sized firms with growth opportunities. The e-commerce trend also comes with changes in consumer behavior. Sufficient use of e-commerce by small sized firms in Kenya, can open a opportunity to reach a wider range of audience and increase profits by expanding their business online. In this thesis, two small Kenyan garment business owners will be interviewed to understand why small business’ should or should not expand online. The focus will be on (1) Informational Approach, how to develop an online strategy based on buying behavior. The ICT acceptance models will be explored to give an understanding on the actions needed for small business to grow into a ebusiness. A small sample of Kenyans, has been collected to support the hypothesis of the business owners’ and to find the factors that small boutiques need to consider when regarding the Kenyan consumer when expanding online. The findings indicate that the biggest factors affecting Kenyan small business owners moving their businesses’ online lyes under marketing. By moving from traditional marketing models and adopting online marketing allows companies to engage their customers, from the begginning, and tackle factors that contribute to perceived risks such as trust in payments and quality