EXAMINATION OF POTENTIAL BENEFITS & CONSTRAINTS ASSOCIATED WITH SMALL BUSINESS’ USE OF E-COMMERCE
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EXAMINATION OF POTENTIAL BENEFITS & CONSTRAINTS ASSOCIATED WITH SMALL BUSINESS’ USE OF E-COMMERCE
Executive Summary
Small company development is an important source of employment and growth in any economy, and the Internet and ecommerce are emerging as potential facilitators of long-term development for many small businesses.
The primary goal of this research is to look into the potential benefits and drawbacks of e-commerce for small businesses. The study begins by critically examining current relevant e-commerce and small company development literature in order to identify significant partial frames of reference for literature-based learning.
That understanding is then used to identify key research issues for a subsequent case study investigation and assessment of a small business, KPD Antiques and Collectables (KPD), which began part-time and sells through a combination of traditional retail outlets and online sales.
Business development has halted, and the company is unable to effectively leverage e-commerce to support its continuous growth. Face-to-face interviews with the owner and manager, analysis of secondary paperwork, and evaluation of the company’s current website are used to build the assessment.
The study’s findings revealed that, while small businesses may benefit from their small size and, in particular, their use of e-commerce, they also face size-related problems and constraints, as well as specific potential difficulties with effective e-commerce adoption.
The case study assessment findings supported much of the current literature-based understanding of small business difficulties associated with effectively anchoring in e-commerce, such as time constraints, technical ability constraints, and the issue of adequacy of owner manager e-commerce awareness and knowledge.
However, it also focused on the issue of inadequate e-commerce marketing and management, such as the necessity for successful dovetailing of mainstream traditional business marketing efforts with appropriate and creative e-commerce-related marketing.
This includes illustrating how a small business can have ‘the best website in the land’, but if insufficient numbers of people, particularly the proper potential consumers, are ignorant of it, it is of little help.
The study concludes with recommendations for KPD to develop effective business and marketing strategies focused on identifying and communicating with potential customers, including enhanced online interaction with that customer base for building trust and ‘educating’ that customer base in terms of KPD product and service offerings – with the issue of search engine optimisation being integral to this.
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