E-Commerce Seen as Important to Majority of Businesses Down Under

E-commerce is rated as an important business strategy by 76 percent of Australian and New Zealand businesses, but 25 percent of them say it is important because it will help them cut costs. These are among the findings of research conducted by Sydney-based Delta Outlooks for IBM-Australia.

Security concerns topped the reasons some of the businesses surveyed decided not to pursue e-business. Cost was the second most prohibitive factor, according to the survey.

In addition to helping cut costs, 18 percent of businesses said they would implement e-commerce in order to provide better access to and service for customers. Twelve percent were developing e-commerce to because they felt it was the wave of the future.

The business processes that the respondents felt would benefit the most from e-commerce were communication and information sharing (32 percent), customer contact (28 percent), advertising and marketing (18 percent), sales (17 percent), and payments and purchasing (16 percent).

Delta Outlooks surveyed 220 organizations in Australia and New Zealand by telephone for the survey. The respondents covered a range of industries.