In the most recent decades, the internet of things has beenexploded and the numbers of users have been increasing rapidly and the usage ofinternet and social media are now part of life. According to statistic bywww.
internetworldstats.com, Asia is the biggest population of internet users inthe world with 49.7% of users. Malaysia is keeping ahead in the loops of developmentand usage of technology, namely in the E-commerce or Electronic commerce businesses.
The great opportunities offered by the Internet technology to bring prosperityto many developed countries like the United Kingdom and USA, and most of the Europeannations. E-commerce become a necessity for developing the economy of countriesnowadays, and will grow rapidly and will help the developing countries in particularto overcome their economic problems (Odedra-Straub, 2003). The MalaysianGovernment has made a substantial move by launching the Multimedia SuperCorridor (MSC) whereby one of its seven flagship applications includes theactive promotion of the electronic business activities in the country. E-commerce is the most growingtechnology nowadays for doing business online.
This technology is getting rapiddevelopment and adopted by most of businesses in the developing countries. Itsgrowth is very high compared with other types of technologies. The technologyis improving in daily basis and most of the developed countries depend on e-commerceto make businesses and trading deals (Mohamed, Azizan, & Jali, 2013). There,tonnes of online business portal around the world such as E-Bay, Amazon andlocally in Malaysia the likes of Lazada, Muday.my and many more are currentlyengaging consumers in Malaysia. With this technology, sellers and buyers aremuch easier to get connected and engaged. Things and services are much easierto find and feedback is rather faster to get. Technology has become commonlyaccepted by society and all groups of age.
We are living in the currentgeneration that envision computers, internet, mobile phone and gadgets. E-commerce consists of electronic business transactionsrelated to the purchase and delivery of goods and services. E-commerce includesretail trade between business and consumers (B2C) as well asbusiness-to-business (B2B) trade. Businesses use the Internet, extranets, orelectronic data interchange (EDI) in carrying out e-commerce (Smith, 2011). Theusages of e-commerce are now being adapted into all types of business,including industrial and manufacturing companies, retail stores, and servicefirms. The technology has made business procedures more steadfast andwell-organized.
As a result, e-commerce is now necessary for businesses to beable to compete in the global marketplace. It presents a new setting forconnecting with customers and clients and conducting transactions. Most of the e-commerceportal or virtual stores operate 24 hours a day. With the add-ons and usage ofingenious and powerful search engine, great deals and prices, consumerscertainly would find these options of purchasing and buying to be more fittingand convenient be it locally or globally transactions. Most local banks inMalaysia such as Maybank, CIMB and RHB, now offers online banking that has beenincluded as a payment method through most e-commerce website within Malaysia’smarketplace. With the rise of social media networking, onlineadvertising has been the most used mediums as a platform to communicate withthe target markets.
Online advertising has grown steadily regardless ofdownturns in the economy. It is expected to grow by 16 percent in 2011, boostingits share of all advertising to slightly more than 15 percent. Half of online advertisingis comprised of advertisements that appear when a search-engine is enlisted(The Economist, 2010). Social media platform such as Facebook and Instagram arenow widely used as a medium to get connected with consumers. Sellers ormarketer can now be more attentive towards their customers. E-commerce allowsfor personalization and specialization.
A valuable benefit of e-commerce is itscapacity to offer consumers a personalized relationship (Wind & Rangaswamy,2001). The development of electronic commerce is characterizedwith anonymity, uncertainty, lack of control and potential opportunism.Therefore, the success of electronic commerce significantly depends onproviding security and privacy for its consumers’ sensitive personal data (Thaw,Mahmood, & Dominic, 2009).
It is essential to get the trust of theconsumers within their visits or usage of any e-commerce portal orapplications. The trust is critical for the growth and development of electroniccommerce. The cornerstone for a successful and lasting relationship with thecustomer is trust, as it largely determines the customer’s future behavior andloyalty towards the business (Berry & Parasuraman, 1991).
The emphasis isplaced on creating a trustworthy image of a company that delivers quality of productsand services and offers convenience to customers at a competitive price.Customer trust depends on effective brand oriented strategies based onbroadcast promotion and advertising techniques and parameters such as thefirm’s size and reputation, the sales force, and the physical location andappearance of a store (Papadopoulou, Andreou, Kanellis, & Martakos, 2001).In Malaysia, there are many IKS products. All IKSmanufacturers receive support from the government through money lending. MostSME product manufacturers are made up of people in the suburbs. This can helppeople in the interior improve their standard of living. However, there areproblems with IKS products in Malaysia that is weak marketing, many IKSentrepreneurs fail (Pemasaran lemah, ramai usahawan IKS gagal, 2009, August 21).
This is evidenced at Utusan Online, which tells the mastery of the weakermarketing aspect, especially the lack of ability to become a good salespersonthat many farming entrepreneurs fail in the small and medium industry (IKS). TheFederal Territory Agricultural Marketing Authority (FAMA) Director, Mohd.Ariffin Awang said the problem caused entrepreneurs to fail to compete for notbeing able to meet customer demands and to grow up their businesses. Inaddition, IKS faces challenges in the new economy. An important approach forIKS to cope with these challenges is establishing a strategic alliance withvarious parties. Dr.
Ragayah Mat Zin, an associate professor of economics atUniversiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, said that as competitiveness is being definedby key technology, Malaysian IKS must develop the ability to adopt and adaptthese technologies for their own use (IKS hadapi cabaran dalam ekonomi baru, 2000,November 22). In order to make or promote IKS Malaysia products in theworld market, business IKS can join E-commerce, which can help in growing thebusiness because the internet is accessible anywhere. Internet use can help thepublic in getting information about a product and service. With the emergenceof e-commerce it can be beneficial to all entrepreneurs in Malaysia as itprovides profitable returns. Some of the e-commerce interests in the businessare as follows: · The transactions conducted in this way reallygive businesses and customers the opportunity to run their business and get theproducts they want more quickly and effectively.
· The use of e-commerce can enhance theproductivity of entrepreneurs where they can share and disseminate informationquickly and quickly through the use of mediums such as blogs, emails and othermediums.· With the use of e-commerce entrepreneurs canget information and feedback from users more precise and quickly. This canincrease the quality of a product or service.· By using e-commerce services, companies donot need to have a large firm size to convince users, but with a strong andeffective online service network it can convince consumers. Indirectly,technological developments have led to human life moving in a more complex anddynamic direction.· With the help of e-commerce, communication,and communication processes become cheaper, faster and more efficient.· The use of e-commerce is a customer-friendlyconcept, which provides a simpler product search platform, matching and productspecification statements that can reduce customer costs, secure electronicpayment systems, guaranteed delivery of product and quick reaction to customerinquiries.· With e-commerce, customers are moreindependent in making purchasing decisions because they have a lot of choicesfrom various other companies.
· E-commerce user can help entrepreneursprovide more important information to companies to identify and innovate in aproduct.In Conclusion, the internet of things has turned themarketing scheme of goods and services upside down and inside out. Despite therapid and unpredictable upsurge, e-commerce has been shown to bring aboutgrowth and large profits in business to business and business to consumersworldwide (Khatibi, V.Thyagarajan, Chua, & Ismail, nil). Today, we are inthe era of Industry Revolution 4.0. The term Industry 4.
0 refers to means ofautomation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies, includingcyber-physical systems, Internet of Things, big data and analytics, augmentedreality, additive manufacturing, simulation, horizontal and vertical systemintegration, autonomous robots as well as cloud computing (Leong & Kasmuri,2017). Malaysia economy and industry are now driven by technologies and it isessential that both businesses and consumers should be ready and embrace thenew technology to increase efficiency and productivity and to expand marketsthrough digital platforms. The major event in the growth of e-commerce was thecreation of the World Wide Web in the 1990s. Ever since, the Web has becomeidentical with the Internet.
The Internet is broadly used for two kinds ofe-commerce, business-to-business (B2B) transactions and business-to-consumer(B2C) transactions. Businesses are compelled to use e-commerce in marketingtheir products and services in the global marketplace (Smith K. T., 2011).Looking ahead, Malaysia has to embrace the technological wave or else be leftbehind developing countries. Investments in the right education must continueto develop the right talent. Young and old generation must be ready to shifttowards a knowledge-based economy (Leong & Kasmuri, 2017).
In relations toMalaysia’s Voluntary National Review Report 2017 in terms of SustainableDevelopment Goals (SDGs), parts of the key development are the growth ofbroadband infrastructure and sustained economic growth and employment.E-commerce has a vital role in Malaysia’s economic development and growth andat the same for IKS time to persuade and encourage more entrepreneurs to bepart of prosperity and wealth of the nation especially IKS product.
