Effect Of Electronic Marketing Practices On Sales Performance Of Youth Led Enterprises In Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

Statistics show that in Kenya, three out of five businesses owned or managed by youth fail within the first three years of operations and those that continue, 80 percent fail before the fifth year. Marketing communication through conventional tools may be costly for such enterprises hence increasing their failure rate. An alternative is cheaper methods for marketing example e-marketing. However, the youth led enterprises may not be utilizing the media as expected. This study hence examined the effect of electronic marketing practices on sales performance of youth led enterprises in Nakuru County, Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population was the 3,363 registered youth led enterprises in Nakuru County and 385 respondents were sampled through stratified random sampling. A structured pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics that included frequency distribution and chi-square were used to analyze data while multiple linear regression analysis was employed to test the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The study found that there is a high level of adoption of e-marketing practices among youth led enterprises in Nakuru County, Kenya. It also established that online buying, e-advertising and social media communications have some effects on sales performance of youth led enterprises but only social media communication has a significant influence. The study recommended that youth led enterprises should increase the use of online buying, e-advertisement and social media communication as they enhance sales performance