Taiwan's business-to-customer (B2C) electronic commerce is still at its embryonic stage, according to a survey showing that only 18.26 percent of the nation's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have ever carried out business transactions on the Net.
The survey, which polled 21,000 local SMEs on their e-commerce infrastructure during Sept. 15 to Oct. 9, found that although 81.34 percent of companies said they have company Web sites, only 56.06 percent of them felt a need to do business via the Internet.
"The success of the B2C sector in the US does not apply to Taiwan, as consumers here can easily shop for anything they want in their neighborhoods," said Yang Jiann-min (楊建民), an information management professor at National Chengchi University at a forum yesterday.
"Most of the companies use the Internet as a marketing tool or a medium for contacting customers," Yang said.
According to the poll, 43.43 percent of all SMEs said the Internet helps them reach more potential customers, 42.98 percent consider it a tool to enhance their company's image.
Of the respondents to the survey, only 29.02 percent use it to conduct communications and procurement processes with other companies.
One company admitted that the Internet improves internal efficiency and helps the company reach its customers better, but it had not yet boosted sales figures.
"We found out that most customers use our Web site to learn more about products they need, and then get the products from the neighborhood video-rental store," Juan Chih-cheng (
When commenting on the disparity between the acknowledgement of the importance of B2C e-commerce and actual e-commerce practices, Gary Gong (
"In the dotcom era, companies realized that doing business via electronic means was a growing trend, but failed to consider if the model was really appropriate for their business," Gong said.
One example he cited was a B2C project launched on Tuesday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which built an e-commerce platform for traditional market vendors that enables customers to do their grocery shopping online.
The project, however, is generally not welcomed by shoppers.
"I'd rather go to the market to pick the freshest vegetables or fish by myself," said Helen Kao (
Kao usually shops at a traditional marketplace in her neighborhood, only a 3-minute walk from her house.
The survey also showed that most SMEs have comparatively weak resources and manpower for maintaining their e-commerce system, which is the main obstacle in developing the B2C sector.
But Gong said this does not mean that B2C is doomed to fail here.
"If consumers' shopping habits change over time and create a considerable demand for online business, I believe these companies will be able to react in a short period of time, as 98.57 percent of companies have basic Internet infrastructure for now," Gong said.
The survey was conducted by the Chinese-language TechVantage Magazine (e
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