Assessing the effects of e-commerce on second hand vehicle importation business in Nairobi, Kenya

Date
2018
Authors
Manyeki, James Ikua
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
Second hand vehicle business is a major sector in Nairobi, Kenya which contributes 8% of total GDP. The sector is dominated by small and medium enterprises. In the recent past, the sector has recorded significant growth and this is particularly due to wide adoption of Ecommerce technologies. Despite the growth, the sector is experiencing several challenges that threaten to reverse the gains made. Through Ecommerce, individuals running small and medium enterprises have direct connections with overseas dealers and hence affecting the sales of the importers. The traditional ways of selling cars have been on a slow trend thus pushing second car dealers with yards out of the market resulting to closing down of their business premises. This study aimed at establishing and assessing the effects of adoption of e-commerce on second hand car business in Nairobi, Kenya with a goal of optimizing the use of e-commerce technology in the sector. This study adopted a quantitative approach because the design is concerned with finding out who, what, where, when and how much the investigated factor is influenced. Empirical evidence showed that there was an influence of e-commerce on second hand vehicle importation business both at international and regionally. Both quantitative and inferential statistics were employed to analyse the collected data. The study found that second hand motor vehicle sellers used online services such as websites as their mode of e-commerce to transact with oversees sellers of second hand cars. The study also found that second hand motor vehicle dealers in Nairobi County use of ecommerce had influenced their operations both buying and selling of their imported second hand cars to a great extent. The study further found that second hand motor vehicle dealers in Nairobi County indicated that their sales before adoption of ecommerce were average and after adoption of e-commerce the sales were high. It was also found that those still using traditional ways of selling cars have been closing their business due to diminishing sales. This study is expected to be beneficial to The Government especially in the Ministry of Industrialization, Kenya and policy makers in making key policy decisions whose overall objective is to increase trade and support the implementation of e-commerce in Kenya. The investors can also use the result of the study to improve on their sales especially in revising their internet marketing relation strategy as addressed by the study. The findings of this study increases the body of knowledge to the scholars interested in the effects of e-commerce on second hand vehicle importation business.
Description
Dissertation submitted to the faculty of Strathmore Business School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Business Administration
Keywords
Second hand vehicle business, E - commerce, Technologies, Nairobi_Kenya
Citation