Barriers to the Development of E-Commerce in Pakistan

Abstract

E-commerce has flourished in the developed world and is playing a significant role in daily lives of the people and national economies. The developing nations are far behind in this regard even though their governments have made considerable efforts to encourage e-commerce. This thesis studies the environmental issues that act as bar-riers to the promotion of electronic commerce in Paki-stan. It shows the nature and the level of hinderness these environmental factors have caused and there rela-tion to one another. In order to make a national analy-sis, environmental factors have been stretched to include the government, businesses, consumers, physical infra-structures, social and cultural factors. A qualitative study was conducted via telephonic and written interviews from academic and professional experts, non-users and us-ers of electronic commerce in Pakistan. Analysis of these interviews revealed that not all of the factors consid-ered as e-commerce barriers for developing nations were present in Pakistan. The relations between different e-commerce barriers were studied and further, additional barriers were also identified. Low literacy rate, tradi-tional economic sector, shortage of electrical supply, failure of government to effectively execute e-commerce initiatives and regulations, low demand for online busi-nesses and the consumer purchasing behaviour of Pakistani people were identified as the main e-commerce barriers.