Challenges and Opportunities of Electronic Business: eBay Australia

This report presents a case study on eBay Australia, exploring the challenges and opportunities within the electronic business landscape. It provides an overview of the background of e-commerce in Australia, including its evolution and the impact of digital technologies. The report identifies key challenges such as competition from international players, geographical constraints, and the need for innovation in sales strategies. It also highlights opportunities for growth, including personalization of promotional activities, leveraging multiple digital channels, and utilizing new technologies to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The study investigates the regulatory landscape in Australia, including issues with information disclosure, consumer protection, and dispute resolution. The research employs a mixed-methods approach, using both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques, and aims to provide insights for businesses seeking to enter or expand within the Australian e-commerce market. The report also includes research questions, a detailed methodology, and a discussion of the study's implications for businesses, policymakers, and scholars.

Running head: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF ELECTRONIC BUSINESS
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Challenges and Opportunities of Electronic Business: A Case Study of eBay Australia
Student’s Name
Institution

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1. Introduction
Businesses in Australia and the world over are increasingly adopting the Internet and
the World Wide Web (WWW) as mediums of trade to carry out online transactions. The
Internet and the WWW are essential for E-commerce as they allow businesses to reach new
suppliers and customers enabling the firm to expand its market (Singh, 2002). The Internet
and WWW are digital technologies and are used to enhance communication between
suppliers and buyers. This chapter gives a detailed account of the background of the study
exploring E-commerce in Australia, the challenges, and opportunities experienced by
businesses that use the internet to carry out business transactions.
The issues presented indicate that e-commerce in Australia has created value for
businesses, although the benefits and longterm and depend on the management and technical
issues to be addressed. Because of the fast-evolving nature of technology and E-business,
many businesses found the new developed to be challenging. Some of the challenges include
issues with globalization and global trade such as cross-border taxation, information flow,
cybersecurity and trust, authenticity and the high cost of acquiring new and emerging
technologies, as well as the skilled workforce, operate and maintain the infrastructure
(Mohan, 2015). Study findings also report that businesses require formal methods to evaluate
the performance of e-business to realize the benefits of online investment and further expand
their online venture.
The electronic business is also known as Electronic commerce, or E-business refers to
doing business via the Internet. As such, E-business can be defined as the use of digital
technology to improve organizational performance. Burns (2016) defines E-business as the
process of buying and selling of goods and services via the internet. Some of the
organizational opportunities that are available with E-business include increased market share

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and profitability, better customer service, and improved product delivery. E-business includes
all the activities of trade, funds transfer, digital communication and interactions between
businesses and between individuals. The increased adoption of E-business in Australia and
globally has the changed the face of trade and finance. The digital platform has created global
markets including business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) systems such
as eBay.
Following the development of the Internet and the adoption of digital technologies in
conducting businesses, many challenges and opportunities have emerged. It is due to these
previous findings that this paper proposes to carry out research to determine the opportunities
and challenges presented by online business in Australia. The research will be conducted as a
case study of eBay Australia.
2. Project Objective
The primary objective of the research will determine the challenges and opportunities
of electronic business. Other specific project objectives will include:
1) To determine the background of electronic business in Australia.
2) To examine the regulatory landscape of Australia.
3. Project Scope
The study will investigate the challenges and opportunities of electronic business. The
research will focus on eBay Australia and will ignore the other online businesses since they
are many and cannot be covered in totality within a single study. However, the study will use
an appropriate method in research to guarantee generalizability of the findings, validity,
reliability, and trustworthiness.

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4. Literature Review
4.3 Introduction
Technology is rapidly evolving within the contemporary world of business. At the
same time, the experience of consumers and suppliers is also changing. The challenges and
opportunities in business affect consumer behavior which influences emerging products and
services at a speed that is at times difficult for regulators and consumers to keep pace. Burns
(2016)suggests the consumers within the emerging markets often have difficulties in
determining effective technologies for their use. The electronic business which refers to
digital commercial transactions includes various stakeholders including manufacturers,
governments, marketers, service providers and the consumers.
Currently, consumers the world over can make purchases on almost everything
through online transactions including electronics, groceries, textile products, jewelry, and
other products (Ngai, Gunasekaran, Wamba, Akter, & Dubey, 2017). Consumers can also
make use of electronic businesses to make other unspecified transactions for services such as
the online purchase of tickets, purchase, and payment of insurance, professional
consultations, among others. However, regulators need to determine the areas of emerging e-
commerce that are most profitable for future benefits of their businesses.
The past decade has seen E-business in Australia evolve to a great extent resulting in
more sophisticated supply chain creating challenging situations for online businesses like
eBay as well as bringing opportunities for business expansion concomitantly (Wamba, Akter,
Edwards, ChopinG, & Gnanzou, 2015). It is, therefore, essential for managers of electronic
businesses to ensure that they adequately address the challenges of digitalization as they
utilize the potential opportunities for the expansion of their businesses. Consequently, the

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current study will address the challenges and opportunities of electronic business within the
backdrop of Australian eBay business.
4.2 Background of Electronic Business
Research reveals that electronic business helps organizations to grow their market
share profitability and improve customer service while helping businesses to deliver products
and services more conveniently and promptly. Otoo, Li, Acheampong, and Otoo, (2017)
indicate that there are four fundamental types of E-business relationships, namely: business to
business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C), government to business (A2B), and
government to consumer (G2C). Nonetheless, several studies report that within the electronic
marketplace, the B2B system is five times more profitable than the B2C system (Chaffey,
2015; Mohan, 2015; Singh, 2018).
The B2B business has been in the Australian economy since 1970, and many
companies have adopted this system of the business relationship as it covers a wide range of
varieties including production, sales marketing (Otto et al., 2017). Since then, employees
have been able to evolve with eh evolving technology, and now consumers can also make
various transactions using diversified technologies. For instance, the NGC technology allows
individuals to use radio communication to send information between devices facilitating
business transactions (Akter & Wamba, 2016). Moreover, previous research indicates that
approximately 88% of all internet users in Australia actively use electronic systems for
activities such as online banking, online purchases of goods and services, sourcing
government services, and participating in online auctions, as well as trading (Otto et al.,
2017).

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Figure 1: Adoption of e-commerce by Australian household internet users in six months
The figure shows the various activities of E-commerce which Australians frequently
engage. According to Aguiar and Schneider (2016), 26 % of all Australian internet users have
performed between one and three activities while nearly 50% have performed more than four
electronic operations and 18% had conducted more than 700 activities within six months.
4.3 Regulatory Landscape in Australia
According to Hajkowicz, Reeson, Rudd, Bratanova, Hodgers, et al. (2016) Mason the
Australian government and regulatory authorities recently released a regulatory model to
develop the best practice for Australian E-commerce and considers some contemporary
issues for dealing with e-commerce transactions, such as:

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 Issues with the disclosure of information associated with the technological
constraints.
 Child protecting concerns associated with advertising, over-consumption, and privacy
 Security and privacy concerns
 Dispute resolutions
4.4 Challenges of Electronic Business
There are several challenges to Australia’s E-business. First the population in
Australia which is comparatively smaller than the UK and USA populations, therefore,
posing a challenge to businesses like eBay that seek to expand their customer base. Grewal et
al. (2015) indicate that organizations are looking to expand territories abroad as has been the
trend in trade in recent times. Second, there are regional players in the market, but there are
also big international players who are eager to capture the continuously evolving Australian
market.
Third, the data from the latest survey has indicated that the young generations of
Australia are spending more on the global online retailers than the regional ones. This also
becomes a major challenge for the regional players as they are most of the times left out in
the market. (Mendling et al., 2018). It has also seen that amongst the top five e-commerce
websites in Australia, four of them are international marketers (Mendling et al., 2018). In
fact, after its entrance into the Australian market, Amazon has soon made it to the top five
lists after it overtook few of the Australian owned and made retail websites.
Fourth, the companies in the Australian market are also struggling with their
implementation of reliable and fast delivery timings, consumer-friendly interface, free
shipping and having competitive prices in the market. (Valos et al., 2015).In addition to that,
one major challenge that creates a hindrance for the electronic business is the lack of

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innovation in their online sales strategy(Ma et al., 2015). Lastly, another challenge for the
electronic business is the geographical position of the country. Australia is poorly positioned
geographically compared to its any other competitors. Therefore it leaves it to reflect a much
higher cost of running their businesses with more complex compliances, higher wages and a
complicated tax structure (Weber, 2015).
4.5 Opportunities in Electronic Business
The electronic business market in Australia should take advantage of the upcoming
opportunities to make their business expand (Sakr, 2014). Through E-business organizations
in Australia are capable of personalizing their promotional activities by the past order history
of an individual customer (Madden & Ahmad, 2015). Furthermore, the organization can use
this data and make the digital strategies more personalized which can help them to gain more
business within the market.
E-businesses can take advantage of the multiple channels provided by digitalization to
reach and interact with a wide age of consumers, including Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook,
bricks and mortar stores (Hajkowicz et al., 2016). Moreover, E-businesses can use new
paradigms such as transaction based payments, collaborative services, sharing information,
and space to influence business functions (Golder & Macy, 2014). Further, the integrated
approach of business employing new technologies, infrastructure and information help e-
businesses to use specific infrastructure and data to particular services thereby saving more
on the cost of transacting business (Goggin et al., 2017).
4.5 Justification
Further, the consumers of Australia have a great preference for shopping online. A
recent survey indicates that on an average four individuals out of ten tend to buy goods from
the online store minimum of once in a month. Therefore the market of Australia has been

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quite used to buying things online, and a large section of consumers prefer online shopping
that the traditional shopping experience (Sakr, 2014). Also with a strong economy and a high
GDP, the Australian population is having a disposable income and higher purchasing power.
This and the findings of the current research will be helpful to Australian E-businesses and
other businesses that are looking to enter the Australian E-commerce industry. Other
beneficiaries will include scholars interested in a related topic as well as policymakers, and
regulators.
5. Research Questions/Hypothesis
The following research questions will guide the project:
5.1 Primary Question
1) What are the challenges and opportunities of electronic business?.
5.2 Secondary Questions
1) What is the background of electronic business in Australia?
2) How is the regulatory landscape of Australia?
6. Research Design and Methodology
This section of the study highlights the framework of the project. The researcher will
employ a survey design to examine the challenges and opportunities of electronic business in
Australia. The study will utilize an inductive approach to develop explanations. The project
will use both the qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis to meet
the research objectives. Qualitative methodologies will be crucial in the collection of
secondary data to answer the research questions. The Quantitative methodologies will help to
retrieve statistical data on the challenges and opportunities of electronic business (Bryman &

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Bell, 2015). Consequently, various databases will be used in the collection of relevant
information Such as Google books and Google Scholar.
6.1 Sampling and Sample Size
The Researcher will utilize a stratified random sampling technique in selecting a
sample size from the general population of workers in electronic business organizations in
Australia. The project will use a sample size of 30 people divided into three distinct strata
based on the levels of occupation from both the SMEs and larger enterprises (Saunders,
Lewis, & Thornhill, 2015).
6.2 Data Collection and Analysis
The Study will make use of face-to-face interviews. Data will be recorded in a
notebook and on audio which will then be transcribed verbatim. Data stored will be retrieved
for analysis using content analysis (Bryman & Bell, 2015). Stored data will first be coded for
the identification of themes which will then be interpreted to inform the findings of the study.
6.4 Reliability and Validity
According to Saunders et al. (2015), it is not necessary to test the reliability and
validity of interviews a tool for data collection. However, the researcher can ask several
friends to detect any ambiguities and inconsistencies in the interview questions.
7.Research Limitations
There is a limitation in the number of studies recent studies that have been conducted
to examine the challenges and opportunities of electronic business. Moreover, locating
organizations with an online business and convince them to carry out the study in their
company may be challenging and travel to the site may consume more time and resources.

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8.Time Schedule
The project will be subdivided into five milestones that are projected to last for a
period of three months as presented in the Gantt chart in the Appendix.
9. Conclusion
Businesses in Australia and the world over are increasingly adopting the Internet and
the World Wide Web (WWW) as mediums of trade to carry out online transactions. The
Internet and the WWW are important for E-commerce as the allow businesses to reach new
suppliers and customers enabling the electronic businesses to expand its market. The
electronic business is also known as Electronic commerce, or E-business refers to doing
business via the Internet. There are four fundamental types of E-business relationships,
namely: business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C), government to business
(A2B), and government to consumer (G2C). Nonetheless, several studies report that within
the electronic marketplace, the B2B system is five times more profitable than the B2C
system.
The Australian government and regulatory authorities recently released a regulatory
model to develop the best practice for Australian E-commerce and consider some
contemporary issues for dealing with e-commerce transactions. There are several challenges
to Australia’s E-business, but there are opportunities as well. This paper proposes to
determine the challenges and opportunities of E-business in Australia. As such, the study
proposes to use a survey design while employing a deductive approach. Both qualitative and
qualitative methods of data collection and analysis will be utilized. Both primary and
secondary data will be collected using interviews and a desktop study respectively. Data
collected from interviews will be stored in notes and audio for transcription verbatim and
subsequent analysis. Content analysis will be employed in the analysis of data. Ithemes will

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be identified and interpreted for discussion. The project is projected to last for approximately
three months. See the appendix for the timescale.

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10. References
Aguiar, L., & Schneider, C. J. (2016). Researching amongst elites: Challenges and
opportunities in studying up. Routledge.
Akter, S., & Wamba, S. F. (2016). Big data analytics in E-commerce: a systematic review
and agenda for future research. Electronic Markets, 26(2), 173-194.
Bryman, A., & Emma, B. (2015). Business research methods. Oxford University Press, 2015.
Burns, P. (2016). Entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave: Macmillan Limited.
Chaffey, D. (2015). Digital business and E-commerce management. Pearson Education
Limited.
Goggin, G., Vromen, A., Weatherall, K., Martin, F., Webb, A., Sunman, L., & Bailo, F.
(2017). Digital Rights in Australia.
Golder, S. A., & Macy, M. W. (2014). Digital footprints: Opportunities and challenges for
online social research. Annual Review of Sociology, 40.
Grewal, R., Lilien, G. L., Bharadwaj, S., Jindal, P., Kayande, U., Lusch, R. F., ... & Spekman,
R. (2015). Business-to-business buying: Challenges and opportunities. Customer
needs and Solutions, 2(3), 193-208.
Hajkowicz, S. A., Reeson, A., Rudd, L., Bratanova, A., Hodgers, L., Mason, C., & Boughen,
N. (2016). Tomorrow’s digitally enabled workforce: Megatrends and scenarios for
jobs and employment in Australia over the coming twenty years. Australian Policy
Online.

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Ma, Y., Wu, H., Wang, L., Huang, B., Ranjan, R., Zomaya, A., & Jie, W. (2015). Remote
sensing big data computing: Challenges and opportunities. Future Generation
Computer Systems, 51, 47-60.
Madden, G., & Ahmad, H. (2015). 14. The Australian digital market: opportunities and
challenges. The Smart Revolution Towards the Sustainable Digital Society: Beyond
the Era of Convergence, 285.
Mohan, A. (2015). Role of e-business: Challenges and opportunities in an Indian Economy.
International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software
Engineering, 471-475.
Mendling, J., Weber, I., Aalst, W. V. D., Brooke, J. V., Cabanillas, C., Daniel, F., ... & Gal,
A. (2018). Blockchains for business process management challenges and
opportunities. ACM Transactions on Management Information Systems (TMIS), 9(1),
Ngai, E. W., Gunasekaran, A., Wamba, S. F., Akter, S., & Dubey, R. (2017). Big data
analytics in electronic markets. The electronic market, 27(3), 243-245.
Otoo, A. A., Li, Z., Acheampong, P., & Otoo, C. (2017). Electronic Commerce in
International Trade in Emerging Economies: A Qualitative Review of Challenges and
Opportunities. Australian Journal of Economics and Management, 7(5).
Sakr, S. (2014). Cloud-hosted databases: technologies, challenges, and opportunities. Cluster
Computing, 17(2), 487-502.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A.,(2015). Research Methods for Students. 7th ed.
Pearson.

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Singh, M. (2002). Electronic commerce opportunities, challenges, and organizational issues
for Australian SMEs. In S. Burgess, Stephen Burges (pp. 316-317). Hershey, PA:
Idea Group Publishing.
Valos, M., Polonsky, M. J., Mavondo, F., & Lipscomb, J. (2015). Senior marketers’ insights
into the challenges of social media implementation in large organizations: assessing
generic and electronic orientation models as potential solutions. Journal of Marketing
Management, 31(7-8), 713-746.
Wamba, S. F., Akter, S., Edwards, A., ChopinG, & Gnanzou, D. (2015). How ‘big data can
make big impact: Findings from a systematic review and a longitudinal case study.
International Journal of Production Economics, 165, 243-246.
Weber, R. H. (2015). Digital trade and E-commerce: challenges and opportunities of the
Asia-Pacific regionalism. Asian J. WTO & Int'l Health L & Poly, 10, 321.

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11. Appendix
Timetable for the project.
TIME/
ACTIVITY
Wk1 Wk2 Wk3 Wk4 Wk5 Wk6 Wk7 Wk8 Wk9 Wk10
Preparation
Pilot Study
and Data
collection
Data
Analysis
Discussion
Conclusion
and
Presentation