Digital Retail Payments in Kenya: Making them Matter for Merchants

How can we crack the nut of converting retail payments to digital form in Kenya?  How might providers deliver a more compelling value proposition to merchants, encouraging them to adopt and use electronic payments? These two questions drove research conducted in Kenya by BFA Global on behalf of Kopo Kopo from November 2013 through May of 2014.

Kopo Kopo had been acquiring merchants for the Lipa na M-PESA “Buy Goods” service and providing them with technology and tools to view and manage their transactions.  But, for many merchants, payments volume was relatively low.  We sought to find out what might be driving payments volume among current clients and how the value proposition offered by a service like Lipa na M-PESA might be made much more attractive to merchants, potentially helping them solve other business management challenges.