At a time the establishment of malls is big in Kenya, international brands have come out in plenty to show interest in the market by introducing retail stores, head quaters and also distributors who represent their products and services.
Mall for Africa one of the continent’s largest online e-commerce firm has expanded into Kenya with a new website; Mall for Kenya which will give Kenyans access to more than 50 international stores and more than 1.5 billion items.
As opposed to physical presence of the brands in the country, the new mall will leverage on the growth of online shopping in the country better known as e-commerce in an environment that has seen digital payment grow at an exponential pace.
As of late last year, Kenya had more than 16 million internet users, having a 16% growth in one year and a user growth of over two million, not to mention a 36.70% population with internet, whose population share in world population is 0.63% and internet share is 0.57%. Today, internet users have increased tenfold with mobile broadband use increasing by day.
Today Kenya celebrates a new day shopping tradition that has seen websites like Jumia and OLX popular and top visited websites in the country. However, difficulties that have been faced by online buyers before has been the payment system that has not accommodated local payment modes. Mall of Kenya will provide easy, secure payment options for customers which will either be credit or debit cards as well as Mall of Africa’s own web card a pre-paid card that can be used on mall for Africa or affiliate sites.
Some of the brands to be expected at Mall for Kenya will be Macy’s, Carolee, Carter’s Bebe, Zappos and Amazon an online retailer that deals with over 150 retailers.
