Analyzing the Role of E-Commerce in SMEs in Australia

Analyzing the Role of E-Commerce in
SMEs in Australia

Table of Contents
1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................2
2. Project Objectives..............................................................................................................................3
3. Project Scope.....................................................................................................................................3
4. Literature Review..............................................................................................................................3
Research Problems............................................................................................................................6
Research Gap.....................................................................................................................................7
5. Research Questions/Hypothesis.........................................................................................................7
Primary Question...............................................................................................................................7
Secondary Questions.........................................................................................................................7
6. Research Design and Methodology...................................................................................................7
Qualitative Research..........................................................................................................................7
7. Research Limitations.........................................................................................................................9
8. Time Schedule.................................................................................................................................10
9. Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................10
References...........................................................................................................................................11
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1. Introduction
On the basis of the studies conducted by Huang & Benyoucef, (2013), it can be said that
Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) has been successful in reshaping several aspects of the
business and the social life. Moreover, it has become important for the contemporary
business organizations to adapt their strategies to the new realities in order to remain
competitive in the marketplace. In the recent times, E-Commerce has emerged as a new way
conducting business and the influence e-commerce is increasing at a rapid pace. According to
Ghobakhloo et al., (2011), e-commerce can be referred to all the electronically mediated
transactions that take place between the company and third party. E-commerce facilitates the
business organizations with huge amount of information together with other benefits like
increased speed of transaction and decreased cost of operation and also proves to be
beneficial for the business organizations to efficiently reshape their marketing practices and
their strategies. It has also been advocated by Grandon et al., (2011) that e-commerce
strategy tends to vary among different companies. In context to larger business organizations,
where the leading motive of adopting e-commerce strategy is to enhance the efficiency of
their internal processes, the leading motive of adopting e-commerce strategy by small
business organizations is to achieve and maintain their competitiveness in the highly
competitive business environment. Adopting e-commerce has been advocated by Oliveira &
Martins, (2010) as a slow process that cannot be completed as once and thus it has been
referred to as a small series of adoption processes where the company gradually moves from
simple to a more complex stage. Thus, in the initial stages, the firms face several barriers and
it becomes important for the business organization to overcome the barriers to efficiently
realize the benefits of e-commerce. The examples of the benefits of adopting e-commerce can
be depicted with the help of the example of e-commerce businesses like Dell and Amzaon.
With the adoption of the e-commerce, the retailers have been successful in lowering their
prices while at the same time have been successful in improving their customer service.
When the delivery time of Dell is compared to the traditional computer manufacturers, it is
observed that the delivery time of Dell is 33daya shorter i.e. where Compaq delivers its
products in 77 days, Dell delivers its products in 44 days and the average stock of Dell is also
3 times lower (Ivanov, 2012).
Thus, taking into consideration the above aspects in context to the benefits and opportunities
provided by e-commerce to the business organizations, the researcher in the present study
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would aim at analyzing the role of E-commerce in SMEs in Australia and in this context
would evaluate the opportunities and threats associated with e-commerce.
2. Project Objectives
The researcher in the present study would aim at achieving the following research objectives:
 To understand possible opportunities of e-commerce websites in SMEs in
Australia.
 To observe the functionalities of the e-commerce SME organizations in Australia
and their way of generating revenues.
 To find out their way of doing marketing and process of attracting consumers.
 To analyze various threats associated with adopting e-commerce websites by the
SMEs in Australia.
3. Project Scope
It has been proposed by Rahayu & Day, (2015) that the e-commerce facilitates the business
organizations with opportunities to change the ways of doing business. However, it is
important for the enterprises to realize the fact that fully utilizing the business opportunities
and overcoming the bottlenecks demands more than simply getting online. Thus, the present
study would focus on analyzing the opportunities and bottlenecks of e-commerce. So, the
scope of the study would involve illustrating the possible opportunities e-commerce offers to
the SMEs in Australia, the benefits of e-commerce and how e-commerce enhances the
marketing activities of the enterprises and the threats of adopting e-commerce for SMEs in
Australia. The scope of the study does not involve the implementation process of the e-
commerce in business organizations.
4. Literature Review
It has been proposed by Ghobakhloo et al., (2011) that the rapid advancements in technology
together with the development of World Wide Web and internet have led to the development
of e-commerce. E-commerce rapidly grew since 1990s and has reshaped several industries
thereby changing the marketplace and the ways businesses are conducted. The factor that
drives the business organizations towards improvements and innovations includes the urge
for increasing their revenue. In this context, it has been proposed by (Parker & Castleman,
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