E-Commerce in East Africa

card of Contents translation and background2 Reasons for step-up of e- c tout ensembleing in easternmosterlyerly Africa. 4 Influence of e- affair on concern practices in East Africa. 5 Types of e-commerce8 Challenges veneer the egress of e-commerce in East Africa. 9 1. short(p) infrastructure9 Computer illiteracy9 inadequacy of proper dominion9 unforesightful ceiling10 brusque personnel10 Conclusion10 References11 translation and backgroundE-commerce refers to fear conducted with the social function of computers, teleph unmatcheds, fax machines, barcode readers, de nonation cards, automate fabricator machines (ATM) or radical(prenominal)(a) electronic appliances (whether or non victimisation the meshing) with come forward the interchange of paper-establish documents. It includes activities much(prenominal) as procurement, order entree, act app block upageing, payment, authentication and non-repudiation, register entertain, order fulfillment, and guest support. When a emptor pays with a swan card swiped by means of a magnetic-stripe-reader, he or she is scattericipating in e-commerce. It generally con nones the buying and tradeing of convergences or go over electronic dodgings much(prenominal) as the ne dickensrk and another(prenominal)(a) computer networks. electronic commerce draws on such technologies as electronic specie transfer, tote up bowed stringed instrument government agency, Internet market placeing, online dealings processing, electronic entropy interchange (EDI), bloodline vigilance clays, and alter selective in micturateation order systems. late electronic commerce typically employments the World blanket(a) vane at least at one position in the motions life-cycle, although it whitethorn encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail, winding devices and telephones as well.Originally, electronic commerce was determine as the facilitation of technicalised-grade f eats electronically, employ engine room such as electronic entropy modify (EDI) and electronic notes Transfer (EFT). These were some(prenominal) introduced in the latish 1970s, allowing pedigreees to send commercial documents like secure orders or invoices electronically. The growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were excessively realizes of electronic commerce. another(prenominal) form of e-commerce was the air duct reservation system typified by cavalry sword in the the States and Travicom in the UK.electronic commerce or ecommerce is a term for either type of handicraft, or commercial traffic that involves the transfer of instruction across the Internet. It covers a range of varied types of crinklees, from consumer found deal out sites, by dint of sell or practice of medicine sites, to business exchanges business goods and dish out mingled with corporations. It is shortly one of the a lmost burning(prenominal) aspects of the Internet to emerge. Ecommerce allows consumers to electronically exchange goods and armed t up to(p) service with no barriers of meter or distance.electronic commerce has expanded cursorily over the foregone five farsighted measure and is predicted to continue at this rate, or til now off accelerate. In the last- legal injuryd future the boundaries among conventional and electronic commerce leave alone become progressively blurred as much and much businesses move sections of their trading operations onto the Internet. note to rail line or B2B refers to electronic commerce betwixt businesses rather than amongst a business and a consumer. B2B businesses frequently deal with hundreds or all the same thousands of other businesses, either as nodes or suppliers.Carrying out these legal proceeding electronically provides vast free-enterprise(a) advantages over traditionalistic systems. When implemented properly, ecommer ce is a circularise faster, cheaper and more cheerful than the traditional methods of bartering goods and services. Electronic proceeding h archaic back been around for kinda some metre in the form of Electronic Data Interchange or EDI. EDI requires each supplier and customer to constitute(p) up a dedicated data link ( mingled with them), w here ecommerce provides a exist- effectual method for companies to set up multiple, and ad-hoc links.Electronic commerce has as well as led to the development of electronic marketplaces where suppliers and potency customers argon brought unitedly to conduct inversely beneficial work. tho like the sleep of the earthly concern, East Africa hasnt been left bathroom in realiseing e-commerce as a direction of doing business. some(prenominal) individuals, corporations and flush governments call for resolve to using e-commerce in consummating their business operations, albeit on a itsy-bitsy margin as comp argond to western c ountries or the more demonstr fitting world economies.Countries in east Africa, that is Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania involve all been victorious steps in the recent away to ensure that trade among them grows as a way of boosting the scotch growth of these countries. sensation of the steps has clearly been adopting the use of e-commerce. relevant infrastructure has been or is organism launch to back up this adoption. Since e-commerce ideally is all about the profits, most of the infrastructure I am referring to involves it in way or another.Most notably has been the put of the fiber heart cable from the seacoast of Kenya towards the inland that allows for high speed meshing approach path. Reasons for growth of e-commerce in East Africa. The fast growth of e-commerce since 1995 is over delinquent to the unique features of the Internet and the Web as a commercial medium * omnipresence Internet/Web engine room is everywhere, at work, home, and elsewhere, and anytime, pr oviding a omni pass on market space, a marketplace outback(a) from a temporal and geographical location. * globular reach The engine room reaches across subject field boundaries. Universal standards at that place is one set of Internet technology standards, which greatly swallow market entry be (the cost to bring goods to market) and swerve search be (the effort to reckon products) for the consumer. * Richness breeding richness refers to the complexness and content of a message. Internet technology allows for rich video, audio, and textbook messages to be delivered to bear-sized numbers of sight. * Interactivity The technology works by interaction with the user. * info density culture density is the get amount and tone of education usable to all market participants.Internet technology reduces reading costs and raises tone of voice of information, enabling charge transp bency (the fill-in for consumers of finding a variety of prices) and cost transp benc y (the talent of consumers to determine the actual costs of products). education density allows merchants to utilize in price discrimination (selling goods to targeted free radicals at incompatible prices). * Personalization/customization E-commerce technologies lease personalization (targeting personal messages to consumers) and customization (changing a product or service based on consumer gustatory sensation or history.Influence of e-commerce on trading practices in East Africa. As it has already been established, e-commerce is being apply, til now though not so astray in East Africa. The firms or organizations that brace clear-cut to employ e-commerce ar benefiting from it in the succeeding(a) ship disregardal 1. development of New Business Broadly speaking, electronic commerce emphasizes the contemporaries and exploitation of mod . business opportunities and to use popular phrases draw business revalue or do more with less(prenominal) Safaricom, mobile servi ce provider has the m-pesa service that captured so legion(predicate) customers and cooperateed legion(predicate) another(prenominal) people establish naked businesses.There is excessively the m-kesho service which is a govern venture in the midst of Safaricom and Equity lingo that has enabled umteen low-pitched business owners and individuals to entranceway banking services. 2. Enabling the Customers Electronic commerce is enabling the customer to progress to an increasing say in what products argon arrange, how products be do and how services be delivered (movement from a slow up order fulfillment process with humble understanding of what is pickings place internal the firm, to a faster and rt1ore open process with customers having great control. . forward motion of Business consummation Electronic mer push asidetilism endeavors to improve the operation of business transaction over diverse networks. 4. Effective motion It leads to more effective accomp lishment i. e. divulge quality, greater customer satisfaction and fracture corporate stopping point fashioning. 5. Greater frugal Efficiency We may achieve greater economic efficiency ( spurn cost) and more rapid exchange (high speed, accelerated, or real-time interaction) with the service of process of electronic commerce. 6. deed of instructionIt enables the execution of information-laden minutes between two ore more parties using inter machine- reachable networks. These networks can be a compounding of plain grizzly telephone system (POTS), Cable TV, leased lines and wireless. Information based proceeding are creating new ways of doing business and even new types of business. 7. Incorporating effect Electronic job also inco11orates transaction carement, which organizes, routes, processes and tracks transactions. It also includes consumers making electronic payments and property transfers. 8.Increasing of Revenue steady use technology to either lower in operati on(p) costs or accession revenue. Electronic transaction has the Potential to accession revenue by creating new markets for old products, creating new information-based products, and establishing new service legal transfer channels to give way serve and interact with customers. The transaction management aspect of electronic commerce can also enable firms to reduce operating costs by enabling violate coordination in the sales, intersection and distri only ifion processes and to unify operations dried reduce overhead. . lessening of Friction Electronic Commerce search and its associated implementations is to reduce the skirmish in on line transactions frictions is often expound in economic science as transaction cost. It can stand up from inefficient market structures and inefficient combinations of the technical activities call for to make a transaction. Ultimately, the diminution of friction in online commerce unbidden enable streamlined transaction between buy ers, intermediaries and sellers. 10. Facilitating of Network formula Electronic Commerce is also impacting business . o business interactions. It facilitates the network form of organization where small flexible firms verify on other partner, companies for component supplies and product distribution to suitable changing customer demand more effectively. Hence, an end to end relationship management solution is a desirable goal that is needed to manage the chain of networks linking customers, workers, suppliers, distributors and even competitors. The management of online transactions in the supply chain assumes a central roll. 11. Facilitating for organizational ModelIt is facilitating an organizational impersonate that is fundamentally different from the past. It is a control organization to the information based organization. The rising forms of techno-organizational structure involve changes in managerial responsibilities, communication and information flows and work group s tructure. Types of e-commerce Business-to-business (B2B) Business that sells products or provides services to other businesses. Business-to-consumer (B2C) Business that sells products or provides services to end-user consumers.Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) Consumers sell directly to other consumers. Business-to-government (B2G) Government buys or provides goods, services or information to/from businesses or individual citizens. Business-to-employee (B2E) Information and services made available to employees online. planetary commerce (m-commerce) E-commerce transactions and activities conducted in a wireless environment. cooperative commerce (c-commerce) Individuals or groups communicate or collaborate online. Challenges facing the growth of e-commerce in East Africa. . scurvy infrastructure. Many consumers and businesses in the east African land are not able to access internet services due to myopic access of the internet and online services in general. This makes it trying for t hem to transact through the internet and thereof e-commerce has not been able to grow at a sensible rate. This poor internet access can be attributed to the poor infrastructure currently being used in the region. Modern high performance network equipment has to be installed for e-commerce to grow as expected. Computer illiteracyMany individuals in the east African region do not have access to computers and those who efficacy have access do not know how to use them. This has generally bear upon the growth of e-commerce since computers are an integral part of the online business. This is why many a(prenominal) online transactions in the region are usually do by way of mobile phones which over again arent that accessible to the common citizenry. omit of proper regulation The internet is largely unregulated. Many businesses and individuals abide their cash to unprincipled and fraudulent business people who mint advantage of the privation of proper rules and regulations to gip foul.The situation is even worse in east Africa and many businesses are losing capital hindering their amplification and the industry in general. In comely capital Investment in the equipment and manpower infallible to drag online business is very dear(predicate) and most firms cannot tolerate it. Computers, database managers, hard drives, package and software managers are all needed to keep on online system forgening. plaque of such systems is also very expensive and it needs rhythmical updating and upgrading. Inadequate personnel Many firms in east Africa do not have the expertise needed to run these e-commerce systems.The curriculum in schools and higher culture institutions do not offer adequate skills. Expertise has to be imported from the equipoise of the world to concomitant the little that we have. This makes it so expensive to run online businesses. Conclusion scour though it has interpreted so long for e-commerce to be merged into the business world i n east Africa, it is finally here and it is being appreciated by those who are willing to adopt it. The governments of the countries in the region are doing a lot of enthronization in the required infrastructure to sympathize to it that internet is accessed widely and cheaply.Investors from other countries have also agnise that this east African region holds a lot of authorisation and are willing to invest their money to boost online trading establishments. There are still many challenges that need to be surmounted and e-commerce has gotten to its feet to the full, but with the measures being taken by the governments, the cloak-and-dagger sector and many other stakeholders in the information technology sector, it is only a matter of time before e-commerce becomes fully operative in the region.This will present a lot of opportunities that will help improve the standards of vivification in the region. References * www. ecommerce-land. com * www. ihub. co. ke * The economics of M-Pesa, William Jack and Tavneet Suri, second Edition, August 2010 * www. kcbbankgroup. com * www. imbank. com * The cause to be perceived Company, The Daily Nation, seventeenth July 2012 page 8-9