E-COMMERCE
Plugging Into The E-Commerce
By Dan Kagwe
The adoption of e-commerce has the potential to drive intraregional trade and attract benefits such as opening markets to isolated rural communities , servicing Africa ’ s fast-growing consumer market , and offer citizens access to new business opportunities .
Africa ’ s early innovation and adoption of mobile payments has paved the way for it to become a pacesetter in e-commerce , with the market estimated to double in size to an estimated $ 75 billion by 2025 .
The Universal Postal Union - International Bureau posits that the future of the Postal Industry lies in the world of online shopping , seeing that the volume of online sales has increased . The new frontier for the postal services sector is e-commerce and logistics , especially during the Covid-19 pandemic era where customers are keen to trade with minimal physical contact .
Despite having an unmatched network of more than 600 branches countrywide and a large fleet of delivery vehicles , as the Postal Corporation of Kenya , we have seen our revenues drastically dip , as mail volumes tumbled and private parcel delivery companies ate into our traditional market share .
In an era where agile private entities are leveraging on e-commerce , social media marketing informed by technology advancement such as big data and artificial intelligence , we have had our Damascus moment and we are now angling our operations in earnest for a piece of the e-commerce pie .
Though the mail business has been a long lasting golden goose for the postal services industry , we are cognizant of the fact that the decline of mail services is “ irreversible .” According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development ( UNCTAD ), the rise of e-commerce has led to an impressive increase in the parcel segment volumes , often referred to as a “ tsunami of parcels ”. To buoy our fortunes in a digitalized economy where mail volumes have
In an era where agile private entities are leveraging on e-commerce , social media marketing informed by technology advancement such as big data and artificial intelligence , we have had our Damascus moment and we are now angling our operations in earnest for a piece of the e-commerce pie . plummeted , we are now leveraging on the advent of digital globalization through modern technologies and strategic partnerships . Working closely with the Ministry of Information , Communications , Technology , Innovation & Youth Affairs , we are rapidly implementing our strategy to leverage on initiatives such as the National Payment Gateway , the National Addressing System and Kenya Transport and Logistics Network for e-commerce business growth .
Unlike in the past where our systems were manual and one could not tell what was happening across our networks , we now have an Enterprise Resource Planning ( ERP ) system , having automated our business processes from the back end to the front office . In line with the National ICT policy 2020 that seeks to provide an enabling environment for the roll out of e-commerce and digital economy , the National Government is expected to play a key role in the modernization of the Corporation ’ s ICT infrastructure .
We have re-engineered the organization to become a formidable partner that will facilitate e-commerce by being the intermediary between the country ’ s SMEs and foreign and local online retailers . Kenyans will also be able to shop online and Posta Kenya will deliver the purchased items to peoples ’ doorsteps countrywide .
Leveraging on our vast network , we have now rolled out state of the art e-commerce hubs in Nairobi , Mombasa , Kisumu , and Nakuru . This follows Kenya ’ s
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