Author(s): Nina Afonge Ngwah and Micheal Twum-Darko
The use of e-business and online tools by African immigrants in Cape Town South Africa with businesses in the clothing and textile retail industry. Considering the use of e-business and online tools is an important part of business in this era of the 4th industrial revolution, this is a good platform to explore. This research is exploratory in nature and the data was sourced from active African immigrant small business owners and managers through a qualitative approach. A random sample was conducted identifying 15 small businesses in the retail clothing and textile industry. The results indicated African immigrants were aware of e-business and online tools used to enhance businesses but a handful of them had the perception that these e-business and online tools are expensive therefore cannot be used except with a very huge capital. To aid in bringing the small business owners to having a different view about using of e-business and online tools, it was recommended that they create online presence which will help drive traffic to their websites (Richards & Morse, (2012), social media pages and other online activities. In addition, community engagement should be created which will make a solid relationship with shoppers building loyalty and encouraging repeated purchasing with powerful tools such as e-tailing of special offers.