Discuss about the ”Elucidating the opportunities and challenges of Electronic commerce”.
E-commerce (electronic commerce) business came to being back in the year 1960. It can be defined as the process of buying and selling goods and services through internet connected Medias such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers (Rowe, Truex and Huynh, 2012). Development of technology and having the technological devices and information systems easily accessible around the world have made e-commerce business a choice. The scramble by companies to increase their market coverage have led to the increased number of companies that join the e-commerce in the world. Since its emergence, its popularity keeps increasing day by day among business operators (Mata and Quesada, 2014). The e-commerce business have emerged with several opportunities such as time saving for both sides, cost effectiveness and many more (Wanyoike, Mukulu, and Waititu, 2012). As well, it is full of challenges just like the physical business such as lack of trustworthiness by the customers and the need of after sales services. The opportunities and challenges of electronic commerce will be looked at by considering the e-commerce operations of Myer stores.
Primary objective
This proposal is aimed at explaining the importance of challenges of electronic commerce by taking a case study of Myer stores. Being that Myer stores is the largest e-commerce operator in Australia, investigating the opportunities and challenges experienced in e-commerce business will be exhausted by considering this e-commerce operators.
Secondary objective
Project scope
Gained popularity by e-commerce business have made the population attracted to it grow thus having some positive effects such as lowering the prices and having a wide market coverage. E-commerce business have become one of the economic contributors in the Australian economy pumping almost $32 billion and annual increment of 13.5%. Its market competitiveness and scramble by the businesses to join the business, have made the focus divert from the traditional methods of transacting business. This has resulted to near abandonment of business traditional method where physical contact between parties is involved.
Concept of electronic commerce in business
E-commerce is a business method that focuses on virtual transaction. Transactions are conducted through emails, file transfer protocol, shopping carts, online businesses etc. (Yoon, 2009). Apparently, marketing through social media is used by companies to directly invite customers to buy their products. Major parties in the e-commerce business are linked through electronic devices with no physical contacts (Turban, et al., 2017). Electronic commerce operates under four key market segments including business to business, business to customer, customer to business and finally, customer to customer. Mail-orders and catalogues are used in the purchasing process in electronic business. Credit goes to technology advancement that have made all the online activities easy such as the internet banking, online transaction processing etc. (Turban, et al., 2015). World Wide Web is used by the contemporary electronic commerce unlike e-commerce where much technology is applied such as the e-mails and social media marketing. E-commerce came to being in 1960s through value added networks and electronic data interchange (Savrul, et al., 2014). Goods are bought and sold through the internet in e-commerce business. World’s changing market provides greatest opportunity for the development of the business. To bring contact between parties involved, telephones, credit cards, fax machines etc. are used in the transaction process.
Importance of e-commerce in business
Due to nature of e-commerce, purchasing and vending of products is conducted through internet in business platform. World’s business activities are shifting from physical contact business to online business (Chen, Yen, Pornpriphet and Widjaja, 2015). E-commerce encourages the development of 24 hour economy since it can be done anywhere anytime by using smartphones, tablets or computer (Colla, and Lapoule, 2012). The devices have to be connected to the internet using their choice of broadband networks. E-commerce websites are used by business organizations to give their products’ descriptions for easy access by their customers. Business organizations are moving for online stores for sale of their products (Patil and Divekar, 2014). Range of products are ostentated which can then be easily accessed by the retailers which then expands sales of products. Online purchase in the US is estimated at 60% (Ha, Oh, and Jo, 2015). This tremendous increase is as a result of online user friendly interface. Marketing of gods is easy sine it is done online through social media. Order placement, procurement, payment process and all other transactions like after sales service are easy and online in e-commerce business (Yoo, Sanders and Moon, 2013). E-commerce business activities are fast, time saving and cost effective to both parties involved.
Opportunities for E-commerce of Myer stores
Customers at their own leisure time can be able to compare prices across different businesses selling the same products through e-commerce since things happen at the touch of button. Variety of goods are made available in the e-commerce business at affordable prices thus saving time to the customers (Strauss and Frost, 2016). E-commerce can be considered in two parts i.e. E-merchandize and E-finance. Modern communication instruments such as e-payments, telephones, emails etc. are used in e-commerce business (Ahmad, Abu-Bakar, Faziharudean, and Mohamad Zaki, 2015). This have seen the level of competition in the modern world to increase. A large number of business organizations are joining the e-commerce business daily. With the help of search engines, businesses in the e-commerce are capable of attracting new customers in their daily operations (Gangeshwer, 2013). Due to the user friendliness of e-commerce business, customers easily adopt with it (Chiu, Wang, Fang and Huang, 2014). Myer Stores are having a wider market coverage both locally and internationally due to their venture into e-commerce business. The cost of inventory management is reduced by e-commerce business since the inventory management can be automated through web based management systems. Also, e-commerce saves cost since it does not require opening of branches in different locations but just load goods on e-commerce website that is accessible to all customers (Chen, Chiang, and Storey, 2012).
Challenges of electronic commerce of Myer stores
Main products of Myer Stores are menswear, beauty, children wear, women’s wear etc. that are displayed in the e-commerce website accessible by the customers around the globe thus covering the global market. Apart from the benefits enjoyed by Myer Stores in operating e-commerce business, it is as well facing some challenges such as losing the customers that do not have access to the internet despite the widespread of smartphones. Use of some goods require physical personal guide which e-commerce lack and this can result to loss of customers at the end (Spieth, Schneckenberg and Ricart, 2014). Lack of trustworthiness, lack of verification measures, lack of product return in case they are faulty and lack of integration are some additional challenges of e-commerce business (Veit et al., 2014). Expectation of the customers go unnoticed since after the customers’ registration on the portal, they do not have the business operators’ follow up. Such cases put creditability of the customers in question. System management such as order tracking system is the key challenge faced by the e-commerce business operators such as Meyer stores (Veit et al., 2014).
Solution of recovering the challenges of E-commerce in Myer Stores
Assimilation of customer with several systems harmonization making them available across every system and showing single edge is one of the solution that is adopted by Meyer stores in their e-commerce business operation (Zhang, Bian and Zhu, 2013). Proper management return with flawless interaction platform can have the costs minimized in conjunction with vendor and logistic partners. Assuring the customers of providing solution to their experience solutions by monitoring all the customers’ interactions (Niranjanamurthy and Chahar, 2013). Most of the e-commerce challenges are supposed to be overcome by e-commerce business operators by adopting changes in technology. The benefit and cost of incorporating new technology is supposed to be evaluated by the e-commerce business managers. The business is to widen their scope and not only depend local possibilities which might expose the business to impulse of local economies (Zhang, Bian and Zhu, 2013). Diversification of organizations’ objectives are some of the solutions to building robust ecosystem. Making e-commerce accessible to the customers through internet on their smartphones, tablets and desktops to manage competition and widen market.
Current trends of E-commerce in global market
Expenditures on e-commerce have increased to $2.1 trillion in the recent past and is expected to rise to $5 trillion by 2020 (Chong, Chan and Ooi, 2012). The increase in customer demand will be easily taken care of in the future through e-commerce. Online search is fundamental in e-commerce since it enables the regular shoppers to view the features of products before purchase (Chong, Chan and Ooi, 2012). Increase in the number of mobile phone use have led the e-commerce operators to develop mobile apps that will enable their customers to easily access their products from their phones
Research questions
This research project will guided with the primary question that states; what are the opportunities and the challenges of electronic commerce? Responses to this question will be in consideration to Myer as the case study.
Secondary questions
Qualitative research
Key steps are;
Sampling is the process of extracting a sample of a given sample size out of a population (Uprichard, 2013). Data will be collected by using the self-monitored questionnaires and interviews of some of the staff management and staff members in Myer stores. A sample size of 50 participants will be used out of which variables concerning the opportunities and challenges of the e-commerce business will be achieved.
Quantitative research
Just like in qualitative research, the key steps in quantitative research are;
The research instruments that will be used in the collection of data will be the questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires are chosen for their ability to provide privacy to the respondents and interviews for their ability to result to detailed data. The structure of the questions that will be used in the questionnaires and the interviews will be both closed and open ended. The sample size will be as mentioned above. In test for reliability and validity of the instruments, Cronbach’s alpha analysis will be used.
Data analysis
In the analysis of data, frequency, descriptive and thematic analysis will be used in the analysis of the collected data. With the help of statistical packages such as excel, SPSS, Stata, R, RStudio, etc. will be used to represent the data on tables and graphs for true depiction and easy interpretations.
In this research proposal, the research will be mainly concerned with the evaluation of opportunities and challenges of electronic commerce in Australia taking a case study of Myer stores. On the same, this research does not discuss about the full roles of the e-commerce business in the growth of Australian economy. As well, this research did not explain how jobs will be created in case the e-commerce business completely takes over the business transaction all over the world.
Conclusion
In conclusion, e-commerce have been estimated to have an annual growth of 13.5%. In order to meet the objectives of this proposal, the literature have given the reviews of the possible challenges and opportunities that will be enjoyed by in the operation of e-commerce business in the country. Companies and business organizations have been scrambling for the venture into e-commerce business. Technology advancement is playing a big role in the spread and expansion of e-commerce business thus making it accessible to the customers through widespread of smartphones and tablets
References
Ahmad, S.Z., Abu Bakar, A.R., Faziharudean, T.M. and Mohamad Zaki, K.A., 2015. An empirical study of factors affecting e-commerce adoption among small-and medium-sized enterprises in a developing country: Evidence from Malaysia. Information Technology for Development, 21(4), pp.555-572.
Chen, H., Chiang, R.H. and Storey, V.C., 2012. Business intelligence and analytics: from big data to big impact. MIS quarterly, pp.1165-1188.
Chen, J.V., Yen, D.C., Pornpriphet, W. and Widjaja, A.E., 2015. E-commerce web site loyalty: A cross cultural comparison. Information Systems Frontiers, 17(6), pp.1283-1299.
Chiu, C.M., Wang, E.T., Fang, Y.H. and Huang, H.Y., 2014. Understanding customers’ repeat purchase intentions in B2C e?commerce: the roles of utilitarian value, hedonic value and perceived risk. Information Systems Journal, 24(1), pp.85-114.
Chong, A.Y.L., Chan, F.T. and Ooi, K.B., 2012. Predicting consumer decisions to adopt mobile commerce: Cross country empirical examination between China and Malaysia. Decision Support Systems, 53(1), pp.34-43.
Colla, E. and Lapoule, P., 2012. E-commerce: exploring the critical success factors. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 40(11), pp.842-864.
Gangeshwer, D.K., 2013. E-commerce or Internet Marketing: A business Review from Indian context. International Journal of u-and e-Service, Science and Technology, 6(6), pp.187-194.
Ha, I., Oh, K.J. and Jo, G.S., 2015. Personalized advertisement system using social relationship based user modeling. Multimedia Tools and Applications, 74(20), pp.8801-8819.
Mata, F.J. and Quesada, A., 2014. Web 2.0, social networks and e-commerce as marketing tools. Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research, 9(1), pp.56-69.
Niranjanamurthy, M. and Chahar, D.D., 2013. The study of e-commerce security issues and solutions. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer and Communication Engineering, 2(7).
Patil, H. & Divekar, B. R., 2014. Inventory Management Challenges for B2C E-commerce Retailers. Procedia Economics and Finance, 11(1), pp. 561-571.
Rowe, F., Truex, D. and Huynh, M.Q., 2012. An empirical study of determinants of e-commerce adoption in SMEs in Vietnam: An economy in transition. Journal of Global Information Management (JGIM), 20(3), pp.23-54.
Savrul, M., Incekara, A. & Sener, S., 2014. The Potential of E-commerce for SMEs in a Globalizing Business Environment. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 150(1), pp. 35-45.
Spieth, P., Schneckenberg, D. and Ricart, J.E., 2014. Business model innovation–state of the art and future challenges for the field. R&d Management, 44(3), pp.237-247.
Strauss, J. and Frost, R.D., 2016. E-marketing: Instructor’s Review Copy. Routledge.
Turban, E., King, D., Lee, J. K. & Turban, D. C., 2015. Electronic Commerce: A Managerial and Social Networks Perspective. London: Springer.
Turban, E. et al., 2017. Electronic Commerce 2018: A Managerial and Social Networks Perspective. 9 ed. London: Springer.
Uprichard, E., 2013. Sampling: Bridging probability and non-probability designs. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 16(1), pp.1-11.
Veit, D., Clemons, E., Benlian, A., Buxmann, P., Hess, T., Kundisch, D., Leimeister, J.M., Loos, P. and Spann, M., 2014. Business models. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 6(1), pp.45-53.
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Zhang, Y., Bian, J. and Zhu, W., 2013. Trust fraud: A crucial challenge for China’s e-commerce market. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 12(5), pp.299-308.
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