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| Photo: Social Media Today |
The
growth of social media in Ghana has grown in the last couple of years. However,
it is not clear how the phenomenon has influenced buying and selling online.
What online vendors use their social media accounts for is not clear. The
features required of an e-commerce website that would attract and retain the
Ghanaian online shopper are also not well documented.
I therefore conducted an empirical study to investigate the influence of social media on the growth of e-commerce in Ghana.
Some questions I considered were:
- To
what extent are online shoppers aware of e-commerce vendors in Ghana?
- What
features of an e-commerce website attract and retain an online shopper?
- How
long have Ghanaians been shopping online?
- How
long have Ghanaian e-commerce vendors been selling online?
- What
types of e-payment solution s are being used by vendors in Ghana?
- What
e-payment challenges are faced by both vendors and shoppers?
- Has
social media had an impact on the sales revenue of online vendors?
Deductions
from the results show that a great number of Ghanaians are active on social
networks, with accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, YouTube,
Vine, just to name a few. Most of the respondents accessed their social network
accounts via their computers. However, a growing number of them are doing so
via their mobile phones (and hand held devices like tablets/phablets), which
supports the assertion that mobile phone revolutions are on the increase in
Africa (Jidenma, 2014) – and that Africa is a mobile only continent (Shapshak,
2012). This also indicates a great potential for the growth of mobile commerce
(m-commerce).
Most online vendors use
their social network accounts for advertisement (sales promotion). This
supports the assertion that online advertisements would overtake traditional
print media such as catalogues and magazines (Takahashi, 2011). They also use it for raffles and competitions,
where customers are rewarded for their loyalty. It was also observed from the
study that little (or no) trend analysis is being done by online vendors. This
doesn’t really look good as it would be difficult for such vendors to
understand their customers and thus satisfy their needs fully. A small
percentage (50%) of vendors also use their social media outlets for lead
generation (i.e. mostly start-ups).
The study also found
that electronic payments are a challenge to both Ghanaian shoppers and vendors
online. The blacklisting of the country by PayPal is a worry, as there is no
‘formalised’ platform electronic payments can be made on. Newer platform such
as mPowerPayments, Everzero, Ozinbo Pay, are yet to get the needed patronage.
As late adopters in the online payments market, Ghanaians have their
reservations, and would rather employ tried and tested platforms like PayPal.
Security is a great concern and a challenge for online shoppers. Such shoppers
are worried of the standards being followed by Ghanaian vendors in ensuring
secured transactions.
Other challenges being
faced in the e-commerce market space in Ghana include vendors’ wish for a
solution that would make it less expensive to ship outside Ghana. As shoppers,
the slowness of the internet is a major challenge being faced. Also as most of
the identified vendors are located in the capital, Accra, delivery and pickup
is another challenge faced by online shoppers.
On the issue of whether
social media has influenced the growth of e-commerce in Ghana, both online
shoppers and vendors are equally found on both sides of the continuum. This
means a lot more work needs to be done, by vendors mostly, in leveraging social
media to market their products and services. Also such networks should extend
their e-commerce capabilities to African countries, to enable their users enjoy
such benefits. This would go a long way in increasing the revenue of online
vendors.
The study has shown (however premature it may seem) that social media indeed has influenced the growth of electronic commerce in
Ghana. Though it is in its infancy, e-commerce has a bright future with the
alternative of using mobile money as a means of electronic payments. The trend
of Ghanaians having mobile phones and using them for online activities sets the
tone for mobile commerce implementation in the country. Further research should
be done in finding a solution to leveraging mobile money on the internet such
that online shoppers can pay for products and services via their smart/feature
phones.
NB: I had a handful of respondents for this study, especially vendors.
Thanks.
Do not forget to add your thoughts on this phenomenon via the comments section.
REFERENCES
Takahashi, D. Internet Ads Finally Surpass Newspapers. VentureBeat, April 14, 2011.
