A Study on the Emergence of SMEs & e- Commerce

Abstract– The Covid-19 pandemic aggravated the effects of economic slowdown. With the closure of brick-and-mortar stores during lockdowns, restriction on physical movement of consumers and resulting rapid decline in sales businesses were force to turn digital and go online. It was this struggle for survival that forced the small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) to enter the international e-commerce arena. This article examines the scenario that propelled the SMEs into the global e-commerce, evaluates the present scenario and explores the way forward

Development Strategies for Privately Owned Fashion Boutiques

Abstract Many privately owned brick-and-mortar fashion boutiques in the United States fail to succeed beyond the first 5 years of business. The knowledge of the factors responsible for the decline in the survival rate of traditional or brick-and-mortar fashion boutiques may be essential to these entrepreneurs’ survival. Grounded in the general systems theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies used by successful brick-and-mortar fashion boutique owners to negate the threat of online retailers. Data were collected through interviews with 5 brick-and-mortar fashion boutique owners, who operated businesses in the southeast region of the United States for more than 5 years, denoting success in fashion retailing. Secondary sources of data included secondoary data from the U. S. Small Business Administration, U. S. Census Bureau, and fashion industry reports. A thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Three themes emerged from the data analysis: the importance of marketing, fashion trends, and customer preference.. The outcomes of positive social change will expectedly result from the contribution to strategic knowledge generated from the study, in the formulation of innovative retail business strategies. The potential knowledge utilization of the study results may serve to increase the success rates of online fashion startups and positively influence improvement in the economic status and welfare of fashion business professionals in the community

A qualitative study of an E-commerce organization in transition

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Customers repurchase intention formation in e-commerce

Background: Electronic loyalty (e-loyalty) has become important in the context of electronic commerce (e-commerce) in recent years. Loyal customers bring long-term revenue to companies and are known to be a valuable asset to them. However, firms lose their customers in a competitive environment on the Internet because of a lack of trust, satisfaction and loyalty. Objectives: This study explains how e-loyalty, e-trust and e-satisfaction form in e-commerce with a focus on customer purchase intention formation. Method: A conceptual framework was formed based upon the literature review. Data were collected from e-customers of online firms in South Africa. After data clarification, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted. The structural equation modelling was applied to test the hypotheses. IBM SPSS AMOS 20 was used for this purpose. Results: Firstly, convenience, customer benefit and enjoyment affect customer satisfaction in e-commerce. In other words, when customers do business activities easily with enjoyment and take benefit, they are satisfied and they will purchase again in future. Secondly, our study demonstrated that customer perception of security, clear shopping process and reliable payment system have a positive relationship with e-trust. Finally, e-satisfaction and e-trust have a positive and strong relationship with e-loyalty formation in e-commerce. Conclusion: The results of the study shed light on important issues relating to e-loyalty formation from a new perspective. Online companies are interested in launching e-loyalty programmes because of the long-term benefits that come from loyal customers. To remain competitive, e-commerce companies should constantly work at enhancing customer trust, satisfaction and loyalty

Online support for commerce processes: the Dutch food retailing sector

Advances in information technology have changed not only traditional goods and services, but also business-to-consumer relationships in terms of interactivity. For example, by facilitating access to company data, offering additional services, and/or providing self-service options through the World Wide Web, consumer requests can be recorded, handled faster, and dealt with more individually in a cost-effective manner. This article examines the extent to which companies in the Dutch food retailing sector are using the World Wide Web and its associated technologies to conduct their business. Employing the electronic commerce architecture suggested by Basu and Muylle (1999, 2002), Muylle and Basu (2003), we analyse the commercial Web sites of Dutch food retail companies (numbering 34 in all) to determine which commerce processes are being supported online in this sector. The results of the research provide insights to academics on the adoption of electronic commerce in a particular industry sector and to food retail managers on their competitors' usage of the World Wide Web. Our findings show that, generally, support for electronic commerce processes and sub-processes is merely 16 per cent of the considered sample. Most retailers use the Internet only as a medium of communications, although others have set up commercial Web sites that provide higher customer support. Several sub-processes appear to be supported such as core logistics, online search of products, and price information display and determination. With the exception of search, there is practically no online customisation possible in the processes. A high correlation was observed between search, valuation, and authentication on the one hand and support for online payment on the other hand. Lastly, there is no significant difference between regional/national retailers or firm size, especially for the search and valuation processes, which share close to identical extent of support

The Impact of Patent Portfolio on Competitive Landscape of Digital Signage Apparatus

Abstract. The digital signage market has been flourishing every year, and this situation opens up new commercialization opportunities for stakeholders related to the acceleration function. The modern world has allowed technological innovation to satisfy market demands, primarily based on portfolio of patent information. The digital signage apparatus became an economical solution for the costly technology in the digital era. The purpose of this paper was to find the impact of the competitive landscape on the digital signage apparatus towards e-commerce development based on a patent portfolio from the WIPO database. The research was performed based on the patent information using Innograph software and information related to digital signage apparatus resulting in a total of 146 registered patents and 40 patents matching the research subjects. The results revealed that the patent portfolio on the digital signage apparatus has high perceived usefulness, but only few industries used this as a reference in benchmarking their technological competitiveness. This paper is beneficial to the industry that seeks for the impact of the latest technological implementation amidst the competitive commercialization of the digital signage apparatus.Keywords: Competitive Landscape; Digital Signage Apparatus; Impact; Patent Portfolio.Abstrak. Pasar signage digital telah tumbuh pesat setiap tahun, dan situasi ini menjadi kesempatan bagi para pemangku kepentingan terkait dengan percepatan fungsi komersialisasi. Di era modern menjadi masalah umum yang memungkinkan peningkatan teknologi untuk memasuki kebutuhan pasar, terutama dari portofolio melalui informasi paten. Peralatan signage digital menjadi solusi ekonomis dalam nilai mengenai di era digital sangat mahal. Tujuan dari makalah ini dilakukan untuk menemukan dampak lanskap kompetitif pada peralatan signage digital terhadap pengembangan e-commerce dengan portofolio paten dari database WIPO. Metode yang dilakukan melalui informasi paten menggunakan software Innograph dan informasi terkait penggunaan alat signage digital dengan hasil total 146 paten terdaftar dan cocok dengan subjek 40 paten. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa portofolio paten pada alat signage digital memiliki kegunaan yang dirasakan tinggi, tetapi lebih sedikit industri yang menggunakan ini sebagai referensi dalam tolok ukur daya saing teknologi. Makalah ini bermanfaat bagi industri yang ingin mengetahui dampak penerapan teknologi terkini dalam tingkat persaingan dalam komersialisasi peralatan signage digital.Kata kunci: Dampak; Lanskap Kompetitif; Portofolio Paten; Peralatan Digital Signage