Online Shopping Characteristics and Its Determinants Among Online Shoppers in Kenya

There has been tremendous growth in online shopping globally, with many people transacting online boosted with increased internet penetration. The use of online transactions has recently increased in lowand middle-income countries. Kenya is one of the countries where online shopping is growing, boosted by an online and mobile money payment. Despite the growth, the online customers characteristics, preference behaviour and how it affects their online shopping intentions have rarely been explored. Besides, the factors that influence their online shopping preference behaviour are unknown due to a dearth of data.This study sought to characterise patterns of online shopping activities and determine factors influencing the online shopping preference behaviour in Kenya and how online shopping preference behaviour influences intention to shop online. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 225 conveniently recruited adults in Kenya who had ever bought a product online six months prior to the study. An online semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data, and analysis was done using IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26.0. For descriptive statistics, frequencies and percentages were used for categorical variables and mean for Likert scale data. Cronbach Alpha was used to assess the reliability of the Likert scales. A correlation analysis was carried out before multivariate linear regression to determine the factors influencing consumer preference behaviour and online purchase intention. A P-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Of the 225 participants, 55.1% were male, 179 (79.6%) had a university level of education, and 106 (47.1%) had formal employment. Most (55.6%) used mobile phones apps to access online shopping platforms. Only 51 (22.7%) shopped online frequently, 70.2% had shopped from more than one platform. Electronics (45.8%) and clothing (20.1%) were the most purchase products online, with "Mpesa" (mobile money payment) being the most used payment method for online shopping (57.3%). On multivariate analysis, the convenience of online shopping, online shopping security, peer influence, and affordability were the statistically significant determinants of online shopping preference behaviour (P-value < 0.05). Preference behaviour was, in turn, a significant predictor of intention to shop online (P-value < 0.001). In conclusion, online shopping in Kenya was used mainly by educated and working people who were more literate with higher incomes. Convenience, security, peer influence and affordability were key determinants of online preference behaviour; hence aspects that online marketers can focus on when venturing into the Kenyan online market to attract customers.