Abstract
M.B.A.
There is much contemporary writing on electronic commerce, although the amount of
academic literature is limited. Most of the survey data and literature available is
conducted in the USA and Europe and information on electronic commerce in South
Africa is severely limited (Benjamin, 1999:1). This would indicate that data specific to
e-retailing would be difficult to source.
Electronic commerce has experienced very fast development in recent years following
a slow start with its inception in the 1960s, when the first attempts at integration
between trading partners took place. The value of electronic commerce transactions
internationally was expected to reach US$300 billion by the year 2000 (Bacchetta,
Low, Mattoo, Schuknecht, Wager, and Wehrens, 1998). South Africa is expected to
follow a similar development trend. As at early 1998, 80% to 89% ofthe revenue from
electronic commerce came from business-to-business transactions, while the reaming
11% came from business-to-consumer (Benjamin, 1999:1).
Technological change is one of the many strategic issues facing retailers and
organisations alike. The high costs of the technology, the scale of implementation and
commitment required affects the organisation and its interactions within the Industry
(Kieser, 1999:4). The use of technology for data transfer is no longer simply a
competitive advantage but is becoming standard practice (Benjamin, 1999:34)
The choice to study e-retail (business to consumer) as opposed to business-tobusiness
is based on the premise that although business to business is deemed to
currently have a significantly larger impact on organisations, organisations are
ultimately going to sell to customers via the internet, the end product of electronic...