EFFECT OF ON-LINE DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS ON SALES PERFORMANCE OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES IN ENUGU METROPOLIS.

The study investigated the effect of on-line distribution channels on sales performance of small and medium scale enterprises in Enugu State metropolis. The specific objectives were to; determine the extent to which social media channel affect sales performance of SMEs in Enugu metropolis, ascertain the degree to which E-mail distribution channel affect sales performance of SMEs in Enugu metropolis and examine the extent of the effect of search engine distribution channel on sales performance of SMEs in Enugu metropolis. The study used survey research design. The population was 277 from SMEs internal records and sample size of the study was entire 277 of population purposively. Instrument used for data collection was structured questionnaire. Simple regression was used for testing the hypotheses. Immediately the end of the analysis, findings revealed that social media distribution channel had a significant positive effect on sales performance of SMEs in Enugu metropolis (F=3,184, pv =.000<0.05), e-mail distribution channel had a statistically significant positive effect on sales performance of SMEs in Enugu metropolis (F=2,035, pv=.008<0.05) and search engine distribution had a significant positive effect on sales performance of SMEs in Enugu metropolis (F=3,184, pv=0.000<0.05). the study concluded that on-line distribution channel had significant positive effect on sales performance of SMEs in Enugu metropolis include social media, e-mail and search engine distribution channels. Based on the findings and conclusion reached, the following recommendations were made: SMES managers must not relies on their traditional ways of distributing their products but must embrace and use social media distribution channel to make their products reach out to people all over the globe with immediate effect and SMEs managers should extensively utilize e-mail distribution system in their businesses to enable them effectively distribute their products to a wider market and attract customers all over the globe