ELECTRONIC COMMERCE AND PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH OF AGRO BUSINESS IN RWANDA

Authors: Mr. Ngirababo Rwusira Dan, Caleb Tamwesigire, Mrs. Nyirakageme Alice & Mr. Gasasira Patrick

ABSTRACT

The study had the following specific objectives: to find out the elements of electronic commerce used by Maraba Coffee Cooperative, to identify the e-commerce strategies facilitating productivity growth of agro-businesses, and to find out the effect of electronic commerce on the productivity growth of agro-business. The methodology used was universal sampling and descriptive research. Primary data had been collected by using a questionnaire. Analysis has been done using SPSS version 16.0. Statistical measures used are frequencies and percentages. The findings from Table VI show the element of electronic commerce used by Maraba Coffee Cooperative. 28% of the respondents reported utilization of traffic building techniques, 24% of the respondents reported the creation of a positive customer experience, 20% of the respondents reported proving that your business is trustworthy, 16% of the respondents reported complete product information and 12% of them reported adequate on-site search engine.  Table IX shows e-commerce strategies where 32% of the respondents reported interactive visualization, 28% of the respondents reported chatbots, 20% of the respondents reported advanced products, 16% of respondents reported more delivery options and 4% of them reported artificial intelligence. The findings from Table XV show that 28% of the respondents stated a wide variety of products equally to enhancement in digital products and services production, 16% of them stated lower cost than traditional shopping and selling, 12% of them stated less time-consuming and faster consumer consumption area, 4% of them stated transparent business system equally to multiple selling and marketing options. The recommendations were given to RCA to regulate the agricultural cooperatives while other recommendations were given to Maraba Coffee Cooperative on the improvement of new technology in their agricultural businesses.

Keywords: Electronic, Commerce, Productivity, Growth, Agro Business

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