E-Commerce Strategy

MANAGEMENT DILEMMA

There is low level of usage of the electronic commerce (e-commerce) by the small-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. This low level of e-commerce usage could be as a result of low level of computer literacy and web development skills, e-commerce awareness and its benefits, trust and security and cost of developing e-commerce applications. Therefore a policy framework needs to be formulated to support and empower the SMEs in the Eastern Cape to use e-commerce so as to gain competitive advantage.

The internet and the World Wide Web (www) have revolutionised our daily lives and the way business is conducted. (Nah and Davis, 2002) cited that the World Wide Web has evolved into a true economy and a new frontier for business as a result many businesses incorporate e-commerce into their marketing and business strategies.

SMEs can leverage on the features of e-commerce such as a global market place; increased sales and increased profits because various expenses related to marketing, promotional material, order processing, customer care, inventory management, information storage, telecommunication etc. are considerable cut down. E-commerce offers economic boost to any size or kind of business (e-commerce business, 2009).

Research by the Boston Consulting Group predicts that South Africa’s internet economy will grow from R51 billion in 2011 to R103 billion in 2016 (internet growth in South Africa, 2011). This will necessitate the increase in the usage of e-commerce by the SMEs in the Eastern Cape Province.

This study will focus on the role e-commerce can play in improving some of the SMEs business processes in the Eastern Cape. Also propose the business model that can be used by government agencies such as Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA), Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) and Non-Government Organisation (NGO) etc. to empower SMEs to use e-commerce.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

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