An Assessment of The Acceptance Level of E-Commerce through the Use of ICT Tools by Entreperneurs. Case of Mashava Mining Town, Zimbabwe

Abstract

The world has adopted the new normal that reduces the movement of people. The coming of the COVID-19 pandemic has enhanced electronic commerce due to the restrictions imposed on people in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. Travel restrictions imposed as means and ways of reducing the spread of this pandemic has led to entrepreneurs resort to e-commerce. E-commerce has proved to be a significant operational tool that brings various benefits to entrepreneurs by lowering costs of doing business, faster buying and selling of goods. The objective of this study is to assess the level of e-commerce adoption by entrepreneurs in Mashava. The level of adoption can be determined by how ICT tools are being used in business. The researchers adopted a mixed research method where qualitative and quantitative techniques were used for data collection. An exploratory research design was used. Structured questionnaires were distributed to a sample of 80 participants. 18 people were interviewed to gather qualitative data. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data, where descriptive statistics including count frequency and percentages were generated. The findings revealed that the factors that are limiting the adoption and acceptance of e-commerce, include lack of knowledge, lack of infrastructure to support e-commerce, high transaction costs and lack of trust of the systems. The findings depicted the necessity for government involvement in encouraging and ensuring usage of e-commerce by providing subsidies and crafting policies that support e-commerce.