The status of e‐commerce applications in Malaysia

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Sulaiman, Ainin

Affiliations: Faculty of Business & Accountancy, University of Malaya, 56300 Malaysia E‐mail: g5ainin@umcsd.um.edu.my

Abstract: The main focus of this study is the status of e‐commerce usage in Malaysia, specifically five main business processes and activities, namely, marketing, advertising, customer support and service, order and delivery and payment. A total of twenty applications categorized under the five processes and activities were identified and analysed. From the twenty applications studied, communications via e‐mail was found to be the most widely used (70%). On the other hand, applications categorized under the payment category such as the smart card and prepaid card was used by only seven percent of the organisations. This demonstrated that Malaysian organisations were using e‐commerce applications. However the usage was limited. The results of the survey indicated that security issues seemed to be the main barrier to the implementation of e‐commerce. Organizations were reluctant to use e‐commerce as they felt that the transactions conducted electronically were open to hackers and viruses, which are beyond their control. They were also skeptical about the security measures that were implemented to safeguard on‐line payment transactions.

Journal: Information Technology for Development, vol. 9, no. 3-4, pp. 153-161, 2000