E-COMMERCE CHALLENGES AND THEORETICAL IMPLEMENTATION MODEL ADOPTION: CASES OF RETAILERS IN ADDIS ABABA & HAWASSA CITIES

Abstract

Retailing industries, enterprises and other businesses are operated globally with technologically advanced methods that can be mentioned in different names like e-commerce, online shopping, digital marketing and others. However, these business-running mechanisms are not even officially emerged in Ethiopia as it is expected due to many problems. The researcher identified these e commerce implementation barriers and proposed conceptual adoption frameworks that consider the Ethiopian infrastructures and other operational conditions. The data and necessary information for the study were obtained by using various scientific data collection mechanisms. These mechanisms include field observation, questionnaires, phone and face-to-face interviews. The target populations for this study were mainly online retailers found in Addis Ababa and traditional wholesalers, supermarkets found in Addis Ababa & Hawassa cities were considered in the study. However, the existed online shopping sites in Addis Ababa were interviewed and the detailed analysis was made. The data collected by using questionnaires were analyzed using the SPSS software for the further solidification of the study. From the analyzed data; lack of infrastructure, absence of government policies and rules on e-commerce, absence of e-logistics, unavailability of payment methods, lack of interest, trust, security and awareness of both business owners and customers were basic barriers to adopt and implement e-commerce. At the end of this work based on the above influencing factors of e-commerce in Ethiopia and the review of benchmark e commerce adoption models from abroad, the new adoption model that fit with the current Ethiopian technological conditions was proposed. This proposed e-commerce adoption model was justified through the multinomial regression analysis of the variables of the model by using SPSS software. This thesis has important contributions for different groups of the community in Ethiopia, which planned to involve in the retailing business. The business owners and their customers are those whom supposed to be the first beneficiaries of this work. Since the study shows them the way to run their businesses using the modern technology by introducing the applicability of e-commerce