Thesis:

Marketing and Promotion of E-Commerce and the Sales of ICT Product: A Case Study of Ministry in Charge of Information Communications Technology (MINICT)

The internet and mobile phones are emerging as important marketing media in the global arena but it has not been fully exploited in Rwanda. The general objective of the study therefore aimed at assessing the measures used in marketing and promoting e-commerce and its effects on the marketing of ICT products in Rwanda. The specific objectives seek to; establish ways which e-commerce facilitates business transaction of ICT products in Rwanda, investigate the extent at which business people use e-commerce for marketing their products in Rwanda, find out the challenges faced by business persons while using e-commerce and to establish ways to curb the challenges and promote e-commerce in Rwanda. This study adopted a case study design with involvement of both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. The study revealed that there are various ways which e-commerce helps the consumer in the e-business domain such as broadening the consumer choice, allowing individual to work from home hence less travel, lowering communication costs, fastening business process and encouraging price transparency. The study also found out that there are various ways which e-commerce helps the businesspeople in their activities among them include, improve the value of products, easy acquisition of raw materials, increase the volume of production and facilitate sourcing of products. The study also established that e-commerce is helpful to the government in governance because it facilitates borderless transactions, it facilitates the process of public procurement, improves the licensing process and other crucial government transactions. There are various type of products sold using e-commerce as indicated in the study. The study indicated that fast moving ones include electronics was rated the highest, stationeries, furniture’s, building and lastly and lastly the consumables. It was also revealed that the application of e-commerce has increased over the years in Rwanda. Majority of the people believe that e-commerce as has advantages over the traditional commercial methods. The findings shows that e-commerce provide an alternative channel by eliminating middleman. The challenges faced in this process include weaker consumer protection, lack of marketing and awareness, lack of proper means of payment, lack of internet connectivity, most of the people don’t own laptops or computers, majority of the people are rigid in adopting such development and cultural background of the market who believe on the word of mouth. The study recommends that setting up and maintaining a store in a prime location and its overhead expenses, hiring personnel etc costs you a lot of money. On the contrary using the ecommerce is a whole lot easier method of demonstrating and providing information about the products. It was recommended that use a superimposed ‘play button’ in the immediate vicinity of the primary product image as it will help the shoppers to get a clear and thorough idea about your product and your conversion rates will be maximized. Understanding complete customer experience requires monitoring from the customer's viewpoint through the entire product order lifecycle and also the government should improve in internet connectivity, creating more awareness to the people on the use of computers and reducing the costs of connectivity