CHAPTER ONE.

AN ANALYSIS OF E-COMMERCE STATEGIES FOR TRADITIONAL

1.0 INTRODUCTION.

The internet has become an important modern day technology for most businesses. “Electronic

commerce is the exchange of information across electronic networks, at any stage in the supply

chain, whether within an organization, between businesses, between businesses and consumers,

or between the public and private sectors, whether paid or unpaid” (Cabinet Office Report, 1999)

The use and application of digitized and automated services in commerce has permitted the

instant establishment of virtual branches throughout the world and allows direct and immediate

foreign market entry to the smallest of all businesses. Some economies have however not fully

benefited from these e-commerce packages due to some barriers and limitations such as cyber

crime and identity theft.

This research will therefore identify the various e-commerce strategies that will help firms

overcome their competitors to enable them gain competitive advantage in their industries and

also become part of the global village.

1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT.

Rapid evolution of business practices and norms over the centuries led to the development of e-

commerce in the 1970’s. Overtime it has matured sufficiently due to the technology enabling it

and as a result of the internet forming an integral part of all day to day operations. With

increased globalization of the world economies and immense development of Internet, market

opportunities seem to be endless for most commercial enterprises.

communication tool to conduct business. The web has become an extremely efficient medium for

accessing, organizing, and communicating information. Both large and small companies are

embracing the web in order to communicate and conduct businesses with their current and

potential customers. For many small businesses, the adoption of e-commerce technology comes

under the guise of implementing a website for informational, transactional, and strategic purpose.

This phenomenon has however been regrettably overshadowed by the rise in cyber crime which

poses as a threat to the e-commerce environment in Ghana and other factors such as lack of

platforms that support on-line trading in the country.

The lack of sufficient system security, reliability, standards and communication protocols has

been a major issue associated with e-commerce activities. There have been numerous reports of

websites and databases being hacked into, and security holes in software. Several banking and

other business websites have experienced breaches in security where ‘a technical oversight’ or ‘a

fault in its systems’ led to confidential client information becoming available to all. The rapidly

evolving and changing technology, has also created a wide gap between Ghana and the western

countries so there is always a feeling of trying to ‘catch up’ with technologies making the e-

commerce platform not user friendly for some individuals.

There still remains a sense of confusion, suspicion and misunderstanding surrounding the area of

e-commerce and as a result some firms still maintain the old traditional procedure of doing

commerce rendering e-commerce an issue of national concern and interest over the past few

years.
This research aims at merging the major themes that have arisen from the new area of electronic

commerce and to provide an understanding of its application and importance to management.

Further analysis into e-commerce will uncover numerous strategies firms in central Accra could

adapt to their benefits which will far outweigh its disadvantages.

OBJECTIVE OF STUDY.

The main objective of this research is to access the various e-commerce strategies available to

traditional firms.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES.

 To identify the main barriers to the growth and development of e-commerce in

organizations.

 To identify the various e-commerce strategies.

 To recognize the benefits of these strategies in e-commerce to firms.

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW.

2.1 Importance of E-commerce.

In Frank J. Derfler’s opinion, the transformation and integration of a firm into an e-commerce

based one can be done in small steps; each step comes with a disruption and adjustment. The aim

of e-commerce is to enable better business processes including marketing, sales, support, and

e.t.c. (Defler 2000). The internet is the structure for the endless talk about “information

superhighway”. “The biggest technological advancement since the personal computer and the

primary technological force causing all corporations to rethink their business model, the Internet

is a system of millions of interconnected networks that spans to the earth” (Wilson, 1996).

According to David Soskin “The commercial internet is only in its second decade. But

increasingly, every UK business needs to consider digital strategy, no matter its sector or size”.

This is however partially nullified by Manoj et all’s (2007) view that the recent proliferation of

malware such as viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spam, etc, has made the internet a harrowing

experience and increased security risks thereby making it a cause for concern.

A report for the government of Ghana by Gayo Ogunyemi talks about the role of e-commerce in

the economy and its potential to reduce transaction costs and open up new distribution and

marketing channels among economic stakeholders including businesses, consumers and even

governments. He also states that Africa has lagged most of the world’s economies in tapping into

these possibilities and is now playing catch-up. There are some factors related to the

characteristics of organizations which affect the adoption of e-commerce. (Kapurubandara &

the organization also affects the process of adoption.

Rayport and Jeffrey (2001) gave credit to increasing technological advancement for having

revolutionized e-commerce and shifting the firm’s relationship with its customers from a “face-

to-face” to a “screen-to-face” interaction. Opposite to this opinion, according to Sorensen &

Buatsi (2002), in developing countries like Ghana, shopping is a social activity in which personal

face-to-face contact with sellers is an important part of the shopping experience. This is to

remove the fear of being duped and also other security related issues.

In summary, the concept of e-commerce over the last few years keeps growing and growing and

people world-wide are beginning to accept this change in most parts of the world. Ghana will

turn to gain a lot if it fully embraces some of these e-commerce strategies in their traditional

firms.

REFERENCES.

Iacovou, C.L, Benbasat I. & Dexter A. A, (1995) ‘Electronic Data Interchange and Small

Organizations: Adoption and Impact of Technology’, MIS Quarterly, Dec, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp.

465-485

Jeffrey F. Rayport, Bernard J. Jaworski ‘Ecommerce’, (2001).

Kapurubandara, M & Lawson, R. (2006) ‘Barriers to Adopting ICT and e-commerce with SME’s

in Developing Countries: An Exploratory Study In Sri Lanka.

Sorensen, O., Hinson, R & Buatsi, S. (2002) ‘Internet and exporting: the case of Ghana’: Journal

of Business and Industrial Marketing, Vol. 17 No. 6, pp. 481-500.

Frank J. Derfler’s E-business Essentials, (2000)