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1
Cost of access. This is certainly a barrier for those who do not already own a home computer: a major expenditure for many households. The other main costs are the cost of
using an ISP to connect to the Internet and the cost of using the media to connect tele- phone or cable charges. Free access would certainly increase adoption and usage.
2
Value proposition. Customers need to perceive a need to be online – what can the Internet offer that other media cannot? Examples of value propositions include access to more
supplier information and possibly lower prices. In 2000, company advertisements started to refer to ‘Internet prices’.
3
Ease of use. This includes the ease of first connecting to the Internet using the ISP and the ease of using the web once connected.
4
Security. While this is only, in reality, a problem for those who shop online, the perception generated by news stories may be that if you are connected to the Internet then your
personal details and credit card details may not be secure. It will probably take many years for this fear to diminish as using the Internet slowly becomes established as a standard way
of purchasing goods.
5
Fear of the unknown. Many will simply have a general fear of the technology and the new media, which is not surprising since much of the news about the Internet non-adopters
will have heard will concern pornography, fraud and privacy infringements.
An attempt has been made to quantify the magnitude of barriers to access in a UK govern- ment-sponsored survey Booz Allen Hamilton, 2002 of different countries. Barriers for
individuals noted by the survey included:
No perceived benefit Lack of trust
Security problems Lack of skills
Cost.
Activity 4.2
Understanding enablers and barriers to consumer adoption
Purpose
To identify reasons why businesses or consumers may be encouraged online or may resist.
Activity
Access a recent survey in your country of attitudes to the Internet. In particular, you should concentrate on reasons why customers have used the Internet or have not used
the Internet at all. A compilation of research about the Internet and technology adop- tion is available at www.clickz.comstats. Examples of data are provided in Figures 1.10
and 1.14.
1 Summarize and explain the reasons for the levels of usage of the medium for
different activities.
2 What are the main enablers and barriers to higher levels of adoption of these different
activities and which actions should organizations take to increase adoption? Alternatively, devise an ad hoc survey to investigate attitudes to and use of the Internet
using friends, family or classmates as respondents. Example questions might include the following. What have you bought online? If not, why not? How many hours do you
spend online each month? How many e-mails do you receive or send? What stops you using the Internet more? What aspects of the Internet are you concerned about?
Answers to activities can be found at www.pearsoned.co.ukchaffey
Chapter 4 E-environment
visit the www
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Part 1 Introduction
The authors of the report note that:
significant national variation exists in what citizens perceive to be the most important barriers to further use, and in governments’ chosen role in tackling those barriers. Using
the internet and ICTs in education seems to be a significant driver of citizens’ confidence in their own skills. Several governments, notably Italy and France, have attempted to tackle
the skill issue later in life through a range of courses in computer skills.
As expected, there is a strong correlation between Internet use and PC penetration. Countries such as Sweden have encouraged home use most actively through government initiatives, in
this case the ‘PC REFORM’ programme. This appears to exert more influence than reduction in lower costs of access, since in leading countries such as Sweden and Australia, cost is
relatively high.
Understanding users’ access requirements
To fully understand online customer propensity to use online service we also need to consider the user’s access location, access device and ‘webographics’, which can help target certain
types of customers and are an important constraint on site design. ‘Webographics’ is a term coined by Grossnickle and Raskin 2001. According to these authors webographics includes:
Usage location in most countries, many users access either from home or from work, with home being the more popular choice
Access device browser and computer platform described in Chapter 3 including mobile devices
Connection speed – broadband versus dial-up connections ISP
Experience level Usage type
Usage level. Competition in the marketplace amongst broadband providers has caused a great increase
in the broadband Internet access options available for consumers and small businesses. But it should be borne in mind that these vary significantly by country as shown by Figure 4.2.
They show the web services should be tested for lower-speed Internet access.
Variations in usage of mobile services are shown in Table 4.3. You can see that this type of data is vital for managers considering investment in mobile e-commerce services. Again
there are large variations in usage of services in different countries, but with overall use of mobile applications relatively low.
Table 4.3
USA France
Germany Italy
Spain UK
China
Watched video 4.2
5.0 2.5
6.0 7.7
5.1 0.9
Listened to music 5.7
12.9 15.0
13.3 20.0
18.9 34.8
Accessed newsinfo via browser 12.6
9.2 5.2
7.6 7.5
15.5 6.1
Played downloaded game 9.1
4.0 7.6
8.7 13.0
11.0 10.0
Accessed downloaded application 4.2
1.3 2.2
4.0 2.5
3.3 2.4
Sentreceived photos or videos 20.5
24.3 21.7
31.3 31.7
29.7 15.2
Purchased ringtones 9.7
4.3 4.2
4.6 4.6
3.7 4.4
Used e-mail 11.6
6.7 6.9
10.2 9.0
9.1 2.5
Accessed social networking sites 3.6
1.7 1.4
1.9 2.4
3.6 2.2
Source: comScore M:Metrics 2008 M:Metrics, Inc., Copyright © 2008. Survey of mobile subscribers. Data based on three-month moving average for period ending 30th November 2007, mobile subscribers in France, n = 12,867 Germany, n = 15,700; Italy, n = 13,107; Spain,
n = 12,877; United Kingdom, n = 15,588; United States, n = 33,237, and the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Chengdu, Wuhan and Xi’an for the three-month average ending 31 December 2007, n = 5,163.
Percentage of mobile subscriber monthly consumption of content and applications
