POSITIONING AND INTERACTIVITY OF E-COMMERCE WEBSITES WITHIN SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

The aim of this research was to investigate how developments within the Internet and ecommerce environment were perceived and used in South Africa. Pertinent literature was reviewed. Direct quantitative marketing research techniques, using an on-line questionnaire, were used to collect data regarding South African web pages and e-commerce marketing strategies, from a random sample of companies. The collected data were subjected to Anova tests, factor analysis and cluster analysis, to elicit information related to perceptions about and uses of Internet technology and e-commerce. The results showed distinct differences within the various industry sectors, in their utilisation of their web pages and in how they drive their e-commerce strategies. They also indicated that enormous development has taken place in the web and e-commerce environment across the majority of industry sectors, and that the industry sectors and consumers, as they become accustomed to transacting on the web, can benefit from doing so. It has also been shown that the e-commerce domain offers enormous potential and competitive advantage for both traditional and ‘dot.com’ companies, although the net effect is a combination of how geared their particular value chain is to manage the increased complexities of managing a ‘virtual’ customer and delivering on the promises made by their on-line marketing strategies. Ultimately it will depend on the consumer and their cumulative adoption of the internet as a purchasing channel.