E-COMMEREC GROUP ASSIGNMENT
MEMBERS: Noureen Baloch
Sana Masood
Sara Rehman
Emaad Chaudary
Saba Hassan Ali
HISTORY OF E-COMMERCE
E-Commerce, as an industry, has become largely popular across the globe; it has currently passed the $100 billion mark and is known to have a growth rate of 70% year. Many entrepreneurs have taken to adopting e-Commerce for growth and expansion of markets.
These initiatives can now be seen in Pakistan as well; while technically ecommerce refers to buying and selling products/services online, complete with online transactions through credit card or digital cash- it seems like Pakistan is creating its own hybrid of e-commerce in adaptation to the issues it faces.
To understand the ecommerce industry in Pakistan, it is important to examine the constraints faced by the industry at large. For a country with population over 180 million, the internet penetration is quite low in comparison to the west; recent figures show about 28% of the population having access and using the internet. Secondly the lack of literacy amongst people also acts as a harbinger to the proliferation of internet and consequently ecommerce in the country. Another problem faced is the payment methods utilized in ecommerce; credit cards, PayPal or some sort of mechanism for online transactions.
Trust is a big factor in these circumstances; most people are wary of giving their credit card information or other such confidential information online. Even if these barriers were to be crossed and trust was to be established, many people do not have access to credit cards or their own personal bank accounts, which also impedes online transactions and impulse buying. Such factors are the reasons that any initial e-commerce efforts in Pakistan failed; TCS aimed at providing gifts and products, but due to the credit card factor, the venture did not quite take off (now TCSconnect, has also adopted cash on delivery...
