Prospects of E-marketing for SMEs in Africa
E-marketing has the capability of offering numerous benefits to SMEs in Africa. Using the research conducted by Bostanshirin (2014), the prospects that e-marketing offers to SMEs in Africa include the following:
- 24 hours – 7 Days Availability:
Internet can now provide customers with timely information due to its availability 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (Lane, 1996). Due to the establishment of online shops, customers are now able to acquire information and shop online any time of day or night they wish and prefer. There remain no time limitations in this regard because online businesses have no special closing and opening times. People may visit physical markets after searching internet or the other way round they can surf internet for competitive prices after visiting physical stores (Sharma, 2011). Besides that there is no doubt that online purchase is more convenient since there is no need to go out of home, visiting different stores and take the burden of comparing different products and prices. The buyers can do their shopping much more effectively from the comfort of their homes. Needless to say a lot of time and energy is saved this way.