The Internet business has revolutionize the way we do business nowadays. E-commerce is rapidly been accepted by the vast majority of people around the world for daily transactions. The recognition of e-commerce globally as a driving force to economic progress has found itself widespread in many developed and emerging economies. Traditionally in The Gambia, buying and selling in large scale is locally
done in the local markets called "Lumos".
However around year 2000, as far as buying and selling of basic needs are concern The Gambian economy has taken a turn to online buying. Even with this turn, the vast majority of the population have limited awareness as to the way buying and
selling are conducted online. In around 2010, more and more people have conducted business online in one way or the other. Observing that e-commerce business is increasing its popularity in The Gambia, we saw a need to transport a new phenomena
in e-commerce called group-buying.
At the time of writing this thesis, there is no known online group-buying business in The Gambia. Thus the purpose of this research is to write an action plan that will feature a start up business adopting a new business model in this novel phenomena called Online Group-Buying.

The Internet business has revolutionize the way we do business nowadays. E-commerce is rapidly been accepted by the vast majority of people around the world for daily transactions. The recognition of e-commerce globally as a driving force to economic progress has found itself widespread in many developed and emerging economies. Traditionally in The Gambia, buying and selling in large scale is locally
done in the local markets called "Lumos".
However around year 2000, as far as buying and selling of basic needs are concern The Gambian economy has taken a turn to online buying. Even with this turn, the vast majority of the population have limited awareness as to the way buying and
selling are conducted online. In around 2010, more and more people have conducted business online in one way or the other. Observing that e-commerce business is increasing its popularity in The Gambia, we saw a need to transport a new phenomena
in e-commerce called group-buying.
At the time of writing this thesis, there is no known online group-buying business in The Gambia. Thus the purpose of this research is to write an action plan that will feature a start up business adopting a new business model in this novel phenomena called Online Group-Buying.

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Research Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2 Literature Review 4
2.1 Group-Buying Business Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 General Business Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3 Specic Business Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.1 Meituan Business Model . . . . . .... . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3.2 Groupon Business Model . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4 Global E-Commerce Trend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.5 Competition in the Group-Buying Market . . . . . . . . . 8
2.6 Laws and Regulations on E-Commerce . . . . . .. . . . . . 9
2.6.1 United States of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.6.2 People's Republic of China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3 Executive Summary 11
3.1 Statement of Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2 The Problem and Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.3 Makadija Business Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.3.1 Types of Deals to be Featured . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.3.2 The Website Interface-Prototype (Front End) . . . . 16
3.3.3 The Database (Back End) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.4 Payment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 19
3.5 Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.6 Support Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.7 Target Market and Customers . . . . . . . . . .. . . 20
3.8 Management Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.9 Key Success Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.10 Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.10.1 Pricing Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.10.2 Commission . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 22
3.11 The Market . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.12 Group-Buying V. Traditional Buying in The Gambia . . .. 23
4 External Environment and Competition 24
4.1 External Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.1.1 Social . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.1.2 Technological . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.1.3 Political . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.1.4 Economical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.1.5 Legal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 25
4.1.6 Ethical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.2 Industry Description/Competition . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.2.1 Buyers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.2.2 Potential Entrants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.2.3 Suppliers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 28
4.2.4 Substitutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.2.5 Existing Competitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5 Makadija Business Model Canvas 29
5.1 Customer Segment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.2 Value Preposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 31
5.3 Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.4 Customer Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 32
5.5 Revenue Stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.6 Key Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 33
5.7 Key Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.8 Key Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.9 Cost Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6 Risk and Mitigation Factor 35
6.1 Market Risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . 35
6.2 Competitive Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
6.3 People Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.4 Legal Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 37
7 Exit Point 39
8 E-commerce in The Gambia 40
8.1 Strategic use of E-Commerce in The Gambia SMEs . . . 41
8.2 Challenges of E-commerce Progress . . . . . . . . . .. . 41
8.3 Policy Issue and Recommendation . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
8.3.1 ICT Infrastructure and Access . . . . . . . . . . .. . 43
8.3.2 Legal and Regulatory Frameworks . . . . . . . . . . 43
8.3.3 E-Commerce Readiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
8.3.4 E-Commerce Awareness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
8.3.5 Strategies for Skills Development and Training . . . .44
8.3.6 E-Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
8.3.7 Enabling Factors in the Supply Chain . . . . . . . 44
8.3.8 Institutional Mechanism and Coordination . . . . . 44
8.3.9 Recommendation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 45

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