Our behind on e-commerce?

BY DEFINITION, e-commerce is any commercial transaction done on the Internet. The beginning of e-commerce can be traced back to the 1960s, when businesses started using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to share documents with other companies. EDI replaced traditional mailing and faxing of documents with digital transfer of data from computer to computer.

The nineties revolutionised the e-commerce industry, with Jeff Bezos launching Amazon. com in 1995 and the first commercial-free, internet-only radio stations, Radio HK and NetRadio beginning broadcast. EBay and the ingenious Alibaba would later come to popularity in the late nineties. With all this rapid progress in electronic transactions ,and given that they date as far back as the sixties, why then does Zimbabwe still have very few to no active members adopting this revolutionary access to products ?

The approximate number of online users as of 2010 is phenomenal, close to 6,5 billion out of a world population of 7 billion. These are all potential customers and producers. The Minister of ICT, Supa Mandiwanzira, captured the value of e-commerce best when he said, “The Internet is now a key driver of economic growth - innovation, entrepreneurship and government service delivery. Internet access is at the centre of all development.” The advantages of electronic transactions are unmatched ,including (but not limited to) services and products available 24/7, low operational costs, less paperwork, smaller spaces needed for companies, easy management of businesses and accessibility to a wider range of customers.

These benefits far exceed those of traditional transactions and it’s time that we start embracing the online concept and bridge this marketing gap.

Home-grown platforms such as OyOs (Own Your Own Store) are paving the way, however we still have a long way to go till every Zimbabwean accepts that e-commerce is the future.