Nairobi — Covid-19 lockdown has accelerated digital explosion in various sectors of the economy in the Kenyan Market.
Speaking during the sidelines of Social Media Week 2021, Go Gaga Experiential Co-Founder and Director Strategy and Programs Rita Njuguna said there has been a huge spike in the adoption of digital technologies in major sectors of the economy that has changed the way of life during the pandemic.
"Remote working registered one of the biggest spikes as the government asked citizens to work from home in a bid to reduce the spread of Covid-19. Purchasing and consumption habits also changed drastically as more people ordered items online," she explained.
There was also an uptick in online business performance during the pandemic as many Kenyans resorted to shopping online and having goods delivered to their doorstep as consumers sought to avoid contracting coronavirus.
"Digitization has become an integral part of numerous day-to-day activities and service delivery and this will be key drivers of the growth of trade in the country and the continent," she added announcing that SMW will be rebranding to Digital and Technology week with the aim of enhancing the scope of discussions in a bid to effectively meet Africa’s digital needs.
She urged companies to develop a digital workplace strategy to keep employees engaged and productive as well as innovate to digitize customer experience and create digital products and services. There is also a need to build algorithms to monitor customer behavior and discover new client needs to address.
"Customer interactions must be digital while products and services must either be sold online or go digital to provide revenue for firms. Companies need to find ways to increase productivity for employees unfamiliar with working from home," she cautioned.
According to a report by Mckinsey & Company, firms were able to adopt digital changes 20-25 times faster during the pandemic than they would have expected.
Specifically, in the area of remote working, businesses were able to implement solutions 40 times faster than they would have expected in the pre-pandemic conditions.
"What employees would have expected to take a year to implement at their organizations took an average of 11 days," the report states.
Kenya is the 64th largest market for eCommerce with a revenue of US$1 billion in 2020, placing it ahead of Algeria and behind Ecuador according to ecommerceDB.With an increase of 66 percent, the Kenyan eCommerce market contributed to the worldwide growth rate of 26 percent in […]