Kenya’s online shopping ecosystem is undergoing a fundamental shift, with mobile apps and WhatsApp overtaking traditional websites as the country’s dominant e-commerce channels.
New data from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) reveals a mobile-first, chat-driven economy, where convenience, speed, and mobile money now define how transactions are completed.
According to the CA’s Customer Satisfaction Survey, covering July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, released this week, mobile applications account for 44.8% of online order placements, while WhatsApp contributes a further 20.2%.
Traditional websites, once the backbone of e-commerce, now account for just 12% of transactions.
“Mobile apps dominate transactions, social media drives discovery and influence, and websites remain a complementary but secondary channel,” the regulator said.
Driven by mobile-first consumers and the power of mobile money, the CA points to the rise of conversational commerce, where buying happens through direct seller–buyer chats as key to the shift in the country’s e-commerce market.
The shift mirrors how Kenyans access the internet. About 71.3% of consumers shop using smartphones, compared with 11.7% on laptops and less than 10% on tablets and desktops combined.
At checkout, mobile money platforms such as M-Pesa, Airtel Money and T-Kash remain king, used by 65.7% of shoppers, while cash on delivery still accounts for 13%, reflecting lingering trust and fulfilment concerns.
For Kenya’s leading e-commerce platforms, the trend is both an opportunity and a warning.
Marketplaces such as Jumia, Kilimall and Jiji are being pushed to double down on app performance, logistics reliability and seamless mobile payments, as websites lose strategic importance.
At the same time, large retailers including Naivas, Quickmart and Carrefour have aggressively expanded their mobile apps since the Covid-19 period, positioning themselves closer to consumers’ phones and wallets.
Smaller merchants are also thriving in this environment, with fashion, beauty and household goods sellers increasingly bypassing formal e-commerce sites altogether.
They are rapidly opting to sell directly via WhatsApp, Instagram and TikTok. “WhatsApp has effectively become a digital storefront for micro and informal businesses, lowering barriers to entry and allowing sellers to build trust through real-time interaction,” the CA stated.
Structurally, local platforms dominate Kenya’s digital commerce, accounting for 47.7% of activity, while cross-border platforms like Amazon hold 13.8%.
As mobile money and messaging apps tighten their grip on checkout, Kenya’s e-commerce future is set to be less about websites and more about conversations.
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