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CHALLENGES OF ECOMMERCE
It is a well known fact
that e – commerce has altered the way
commercial activities like global
sourcing, import and export and
international and domestic trade and
businesses are conducted. E – Commerce
has surely broken several barriers, but
the truth is that several new barriers
have risen which have to be broken as
well. This article will explain a few of
the new challenges faced by e – commerce
in the current situation and what
implications it has on global sourcing,
import and export and international
trade activities.
When a survey was
conducted in UK by a management
consultancy company called KPMG, it
revealed that the largest obstacle for
many organisations to install and use e
– commerce technologies for a variety of
purposes like global sourcing, import
and export and international trade was
that the firms were not sure about the
security related issues of this
technology. There are sufficient
measures and standards to ensure the
security and safety of this technology
by the companies don’t implement it
because they are not sure or aware of
how efficient these technologies are,
which has made them sceptical about
using it for activities such as global
sourcing, import and export and any
other form of international trade.
Certainly, there have
been many efforts put in by certain
companies to over come this barrier. The
best example for such an activity is the
collaboration of efforts by the 2 big
companies that are involved in accepting
online payments namely Visa and
MasterCard. The 2 giants have jointly
created a security protocol that can
used to make online transactions more
secure for the purposes of making
payments for import and export orders,
international trade and other activities
like global sourcing. This protocol is
named as SET, which stands for Secure
Electronic Transaction. But, such
technologies have to be backed by
international organisations and
authorities for setting up the required
infrastructure at the required places.
This will ensure that international
trade can be carried on free from
barriers, in the future, and also with
out the fear that global sourcing and
import and export deals will be
intercepted by 3rd parties or
fraudsters.
Another major challenge
facing the e – commerce technology for
the purpose of global sourcing, import
and export and international trade is to
ensure that concerned parties don’t deny
transactions like payment, delivery or
receipt of order. This activity is
termed as “Non – Repudiation”. This is a
very important aspect of e – commerce
and work is on in full swing in this
direction. This technology is needed if
companies and individuals who are
geographically located far away from
each other, have to feel secure and safe
while using e – commerce for various
activities such as global sourcing,
import and export and international
trade. Once this challenge is overcome,
the true value of e – commerce can be
realised.
It only after all these
challenges are overcome that the true
potential of e – commerce for purposes
of global sourcing, import and export
and international trade will be known.
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