E-Commerce Challenges

I. INTRODUCTION

The combination of the Internet and e-

commerce usage has produced a new online
atmosphere that is extremely efficient and effective
[1]. The feasibility features offered by e-commerce
has swiftly transforming the way in which enterprises
communicating with each other, as well as with
consumers and governments. The use of e-commerce
on micro and small enterprises; and in the service
sectors has a noteworthy blow on firm performance
[2].

Most of the international players and the

largest e-commerce enterprises, measured by online
revenue, come from the United States and China.
Those companies are Amazon.com (United States),
JD.com (China), Dell (United States) and Jia.com
(China). Enterprises like Alibaba Group (China),
 eBay (United States) and Rakuten (Japan)
provide
platform which allow individuals and small
businesses to offer their goods and services online
[2].In 2013, the top e-commerce enterprises in term
of merchandise value were the Alibaba Group,
followed by Amazon and eBay [2].

Deniably, e-commerce enterprises have

offered a proven number of prospective benefits like
better market access and reach, lower cost for
dealings for both buyers and sellers, improvement
over domestic and market efficiency, as well as
enhancing involvement in international value chains,
but not to forget, the issues and challenges face by
new or existing players in the sectors [2].

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

Researchers have defined e-commerce in

many versions. Using the Organization for
 Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
version, e-commerce can be defined as [3]

The sale or purchase of goods or

ser,conducted over computer networks by methods
specifically designed for the
purpose of receiving or placing of orders.
The goods or services are ordered by those
methods, but the payment and the ultimate
delivery of the goods or services do not have
to be conducted online. An e-commerce
transaction can be between enterprises,
households, individuals, government, and
other public or private organizations. To be
included are orders made over the web,
extranet or electronic data interchange. The
type is defined by the method of placing the
order. To be excluded are orders made by
telephone calls, facsimile or manually typed
e-mail.
ness (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C),
consumer -to-consumer (C2C) and business-to
government (B2G).Although the mainstream
research tends to focus on B2C without making any
difference between B2C and C2C, but C2C e-
commerce has been found to be more popular [1].

A. Business-to-business (B2B)
B2B can be defined as the transaction between
businesses, for instance, between a wholesaler and a
retailer, or between a manufacturer and a wholesaler
[2]. The total value for this sector is more than $15
trillion in 2013, as estimated by UNCTAD [2].

B. Business-to-consumer (B2C)
B2C is the sales by “pure-play” e-commerce
enterprises. Measured by both online buyers and by
revenue, China emerged as the largest global market
for B2C e-commerce and the market is expanding
rapidly, especially in Asia and Africa [2].
 Consumers can be reached via broad range of
channels including dedicated e-commerce
websites,
social networks, crowd sourcing platforms, mobile
applications and so on [2].

C. Consumer-to-consumer (C2C)
C2C is considered as the modern version of
classified marketing in newspaper or going to a
public sale. It provides a platform offering potentials
for casual enterprises to engage in e-commerce. In
general, C22 like eBay or Taobao covers online
public sale and sales within the online
communities[2].

D. Business-to-government (B2G)
The B2G dealing is similar to B2B, except that
instead of business, the customers are a government
entity. Example of this sector is public e-
procurement [2].
III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study uses mainly secondary data, which
are journals and formal reports. Recent
academic journals were selected, ranging from the
year 2011 to 2015. The databases used are from
IEEE and ScienceDirect. Google Scholar was used
as the initial platform to gather relevant articles. The
contents of each journal were browsed, and then
collected. No new model or framework was derived
from this study.

IV CHALLENGES

A. Trust
The trust between sellers and buyers plays an important
role for any successful e-commerce transactions. Yoon
and Occena [1] have found out that trust is the
fundamental problem in e-commerce environment.
Comparing to traditional commerce, trust is more
important in e-commerce because goods and services
purchased over the Internet cannot be immediately
verified and also because of the lack of rules and
regulation in e-commerce [1].

B. Readiness Level
Readiness level is another factor of the ecommerce
challenges. Kurnia et al. [4] presented a framework
consisting three levels of readiness which are
Organizational Readiness (OR), Industry Readiness (IR)
and National Readiness (NR).

1).Organizational readiness level

Kurnia et al. [4] defined this first level of readiness in the
context of perceived benefits (PB) and perceived
organization resources and governance (PORaG). PB is
used to explain how a certain technology is perceived to
be advantageous to an organization. In this context, PB
takes into consideration, the costs, risks, threats,
opportunities and compatibility of the innovation with the
existing processes, culture, existing requirements and
infrastructure. Meanwhile, PORaG is referring to
organizational perceptions of the resources availability
which including financial, technology and human
resources [4].

2). Industry readiness level

Industry readiness denotes the readiness in nurturing e-
commerce technology adoption, given the fact that small
and medium enterprises (SMEs) having fewer influence
and power comparing to larger organizations [4].

3). National readiness level

This level is referring to the availability of services in a
country that support the adoption of ecommerce
technologies.

4). E-commerce Security

E-commerce security shares the same issues with cyber
security. The dimensions can be categorized as below [5]:
1) Integrity – making sure the data or information are
not modified or tampered by any unauthorized
persons and not using them without users’
permission.
 2) Non-repudiation – making sure not denying any sale
or purchase.
3) Authentication – making sure that only authorized
persons are allowed to logon to system.
4) Confidentiality – sensitive data and information are
encrypted and not easily broken.
5) Privacy – the ability to manage the term under which
private information is acquired and used.
6) Availability – the software system is always available
and the hardware equipments are working properly, and
in the case of disaster, the system is able to recover
quickly [6].
According to Ladan [7], e-commerce security strategies
dealing only with two main issues: protecting the business
network integrity and the internal systems, and
accomplishing secure transactions between the customer
and the seller.

V. PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

A. Trust Solutions
Noor et al. [8] proposed a trust framework for social
commerce which consisting of Usefulness, Ease of Use,
Security, Privacy, Website Design and E-word of
 mouth. The study that focuses on Scommerce which is
also applicable for E-commerce since it’s a subset of E-
commerce. According to the researchers, usefulness is
the degree to which user recognizes the commerce site
to be beneficial and the user’s decision and perception
to the business transaction are affected by this factor
[8]. The next factor that influences the online trust is
ease of use. Yoon and Occena [1] stated that a notable
attempt must be made to improve the website quality
and enhance the third-party recognition (TPR). Using
gender and age as the control variables, their research is
to investigate the trust in C2C ecommerce. Younger
generations are affected by the quality of an e-
commerce website that influence them to become real
online purchasers [1]. E-commerce enterprises should
come out with a different strategy to cater for different
target of consumer’s age. For the TPR, E-commerce
websites have options to use third-party seals of
approval like TRUSTe or BBBOnline for endorsing the
privacy seals since users consider them important and
are more likely to
Provide personal information over the Internet [1]. For
the enterprises targeting consumers over 40 years old, the
trust can be established by providing communities that let
consumers to give feedback since the customers’ feedback
and comments can influence other customers [1]. Other
researchers [8, 9] agree that recommendation from family
or friends or word of mouth are considered an effective
factor on reputation and trust.
Zhang [10] stated that, the trust factors for ecommerce
can be measured in the form of; item as described in the
website, service manner, and shipping time of the
products or services. Using Taobao.com as the model for
the study, the researcher mentioned the weaknesses
existing in the Taobao rating system. Taobao.com is the
China’s largest C2C online marketplace [1, 2] where 90
percent of the transactions comes from China [2]. In
2011, the total business transactions is about 600 billion
Yuan [10]. Since almost all C2C enterprises in China has
been adopting the same trust models like Taobao, the
researcher has proposed a few countermeasures;
transaction price weight, time attenuation coefficient, and
trust factors weighted to overcome the disadvantages of
Taobao adopted trust models [10].

B. Readiness Solution In order to encourage enterprises,

especially SMEs, to adopt e-commerce technologies, the
collaboration between industry partners and the
government should take place. The government and
industry partners need to help SMEs to build and
maintain their structures, domestic organizational
resources and governance in order to fit well with
ecommerce technologies [4].
The responsibilities of policymakers also play an
important role. To increase the awareness of industry
standards and structures should be taken by the
policymakers [4]. Furthermore, technological resources,
human and financial should be provided to facilitate the
adoption of e-commerce technologies [4].
B. Security Solution Ladan [7] stressed out that every e-
commerce system should have security measures
because it is one of the most important features for
e-commerce. Security measures should be applied
at all levels that including business applications, the
enterprise internal networks, front-end clients and
servers, and also data and information interactions
[7]. The installation and configuration of firewalls
and the implementation of DMZ in the enterprises
networks
Should prevent unauthorized access [7]. In addition,
security can be enhanced further by network
segregation, strong data encryption, and intrusion
detection system (IDS) installation and configuration
[7].
Meanwhile, Matbouli and Gao [6] have identified five
security measures to minimize the threat posses by e-
commerce security. The measures are:
 1) Education – the awareness and knowledge among
the consumers regarding the e-commerce security
should be taken into consideration.

2) Secure Socket Layer (SSL) – the use of public key

encryption in SSL ensures the confidentiality, data
integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation.
3) Personal Identification Number (PIN) – the use of
email callbacks to confirm each transaction.

4) Personal Firewalls – having a firewall is important

to help protect a computer
5) Security Policy – having a clear security policy is
crucial step to secure an e-commerce business
enterprise.

VI. CONCLUSION

As the digital economy is expanding rapidly and

affecting more enterprises activities, it is important
to take into consideration the proposed solutions for
the mentioned issues and challenges of e-commerce
business. Even though e-commerce enterprises
could be from any types, basically they share the
common issues and challenges.
 REFERENCES

[1] H. S. Yoon and L. G. Occeña, "Influencing factors

of trust in consumer-to-consumer electronic
commerce with gender and age," International
Journal of Information Management, vol. 35, pp.
352-363, 2015.

[2]UNCTAD, "Information Economy Report

2015Unlocking the Potential of E-commerce for
Developing Countries," 2015.

OECD,
[3]https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/ecom_e/
wkprog_ e.htm (accessed 20 April 2016), 2011.

S. Kurnia, J. Choudrie, R. M. Mahbubur, and B.

[4]Alzougool, "E-commerce technology adoption: A
Malaysian grocery SME retail sector study," Journal
of

Business Research, vol. 68, pp. 1906-1918, 2015. S.

[5]Chatterjee, "Security and privacy issues in
 ECommerce: A proposed guidelines to mitigate the
risk,"

challenges for ecommerce

Ecommerce has long been the most lucrative business

model for those looking to try their hands at
entrepreneurship. Yet, it's also one of the most dynamic
and demanding sectors to work in. Today, we look at some
of the many challenges that come with starting an
ecommerce business.

1. Finding a unique selling proposition

If you've thought of it, chances are someone else already

did, too. Starting an ecommerce venture requires a
sellable product, which is tricky when there're at least ten
other businesses selling the same, or a similar, product.
That's why a unique selling proposition (USP), or
messaging angle, is crucial. Apple's USP is privacy.
Android's USP is affordability.
When looking for your USP, start with something you love.
If you sell phone covers, consider why you would
personally buy one design over another. For example, if
you're inclined to buy Doctor Who themed products,
chances are, many others are too. That could be your
USP—the comprehensive place to buy all things Who.
Your next step is to look at competitors and their market
share. In this case, the BBC is the official provider of Who
merchandise. There are also hundreds of other
businesses that have cashed in on the fandom. What can
you offer that all those other sellers can't? Looking at
product reviews from your competitors is a good way to
find unique angles you can capitalise on. Reviews will also
tell you what customers get from the product and what
more they want. You can use that information to
customise your product offering and your messaging.

2. Generating leads consistently

One of the most successful ways to get leads is to run ads

on Google search result pages and Facebook. However, if
you're not constantly watching your budget, these ads can
get expensive quickly. It's a good idea to explore other
channels and ways to generate leads. Consider starting a
blog that conveys the value of your product and your
brand. Expand your content portfolio to educational
material about your industry and even complementary
products your customers should explore. Building up
content is a long-term game. It'll help you get leads
organically and it'll consistently serve you down the road,
but you have to invest the time and effort to create high-
quality blogs that your potential audience wants to
consume.
Based on your product and your target audience, you can
also look at alternative content creation options, such as
vlogs, podcasts, newsletters, Twitter chats, Clubhouse
chat rooms, Facebook groups, and TikTok posts. We
strongly advocate for publishing content on channels you
own, such as a traditional blog or newsletter. This is called
owned media, and it's valuable, regardless of your
business size. Owned media provides you with channels
to communicate with your audience, even if popular social
media sites get blocked or hacked.
Another way to ensure you get leads consistently is to
start building email lists. You can do this on your blog or
through social media communities. As long as you have a
list of people who want to hear from you, you'll get return
customers who will likely refer their friends and family to
you.
 3. Optimising your website
Audit your website's usability regularly, and make
sure your visitors are navigating your online store
as you intended. Seek help from website testers
or friends and family who can provide feedback
on how you can improve your website's flow. This
will help you find and rectify hard-to-
spot communication gaps. For example, a jacket
you're selling might have hidden pockets, but if
your description doesn't explicitly say this, your
website visitors won't know what they're buying.
Review the copy on every product page to
ensure it covers all features and functionalities,
has a grammatically and factually correct
description, and includes photos to inform the
buyer. The less friction the customer experiences
when buying a product online, the better the
chances are that they'll complete the purchase.
Analyse your website's traffic, drop off points, and scrolling
patterns. These will help you identify which parts of the
website your audience is most engaged with and where
they lose interest. If you find that a lot of people leave the
site after arriving at the checkout page, you'll know that
you need to improve that page. You can start to
experiment with various changes to content, colours and
design, layout, payment options, or something else
entirely.
Payment gateways aren't always easy to get right.
Because you're working with multiple external vendors and
their payment systems, it will take some time to organise
things the way your audience wants. Take some time to
make sure each vendor's payment gateway is easy to
navigate. This will also reduce the number of customer
support queries you might get because of a faulty payment
gateway.

4. Customer nurturing and up-selling

Ecommerce requires so much more than setting

up the perfect online store. Email follow-ups,
discount codes, weekly specials reminders, and
mobile push notifications are all essential
elements of reinforcing your brand and products
in the customer's mind. Focus on building a
customer nurturing strategy for your business. If
you sell a single product, then your nurturing
strategy will be the same for all customers. But if
you sell multiple products, you could consider
individual follow-ups and nurturing strategies for
each product.
Include up-selling as part of your nurturing plan—if
someone bought a book by Margret Atwood, they'll
probably be interested in other books by the same author.
As Amazon does, you can display these recommendations
on the checkout page for instant up-sell opportunities, but
you can also use a customer's purchase data to design
customised follow-up email campaigns.
The ultimate goal of these email campaigns and nurturing
efforts is an enhanced customer experience. You want
your customers to be happy with their purchase, but you
also want them to remember you when they want to
purchase again. To ensure this, you should aim to be so
helpful they automatically think of you. Design emails that
help your customers find what they want, but also help
them learn about what they've purchased. This is where
you can include educational blogs, product help
documents and videos, and even re-direct customers to
your social media groups. If your content is informative,
helpful, and relevant, your customers will return to you.

5. Internal product integration

In our conversations with prospective customers, we
often find that a lot of businesses struggle with siloed
systems. They might be using the best product in the
industry, but if it doesn't integrate with their other
information systems, it causes chaos and stress.
When you're starting an ecommerce business, identify
which software products you want to use for each
business function. Then, evaluate whether each
product can natively integrate with your existing
systems. Not all products have seamless integrations
built in, and that's okay. If you find an app you like, but
it doesn't have built-in connections, see if that app is
compatible with integration tools like Zapier and Zoho
Flow, or has an open API you can use to connect
various systems.
For example, you'll want your online store to connect with
your website analytics tool. When someone places an
order on your website, that information should flow
through to your inventory system, your shipping
management system, and your accounting app.