- Groundwork
Digital platforms in retail trade and their impact on the outcomes of micro-entrepreneurs in Kenya
- May 29, 2025
- 11:16 am
SECTOR
PROJECT TYPE
Location
BEHAVIORAL THEME
OVERVIEW
The rapid spread of mobile phones in the Global South has sparked interest in their potential to drive economic growth by overcoming technical and market barriers. Mobile phones’ reach into low-income and marginalized populations has raised hopes for more inclusive growth, allowing more people to participate in and benefit from digital markets. Kenya provides an ideal context to explore this promise.
With a mobile phone penetration rate of 126% and 84% of adults owning a mobile device, Kenya represents a mature market for mobile technology. The dominance of the informal sector, where most Kenyans earn their livelihoods, makes this setting particularly relevant for examining the role of digital platforms.
THEMATIC AREAS
This study investigated how micro-entrepreneurs (MEs) use digital platforms to improve their livelihoods. We explored three key mechanisms through which platforms could benefit MEs:
- access to more competitive stock prices to improve profit margins,
- enhanced price discovery for better purchasing decisions, and
- development of digital transaction histories to unlock access to formal financial services.
We conducted this study in Kenya, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and India, but this report focuses on findings from Kenya. In Kenya, the study focused on the retail sector’s business-to-business aspect of the demand side, where MEs primarily use digital platforms to source stock. We conducted three phases of research over 15 months: a qualitative phase to validate the hypothesis, a quantitative survey, and a final qualitative phase to refine our insights. The findings presented here are based on the first two phases.