E-commerce - Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Chapter 2: Literature review Page 20
e-commerce 2 (Bytheway, 1995). For the retailer all the B2B activity upstream
in the supply chain makes for more reliable supply and lower administration
costs. The question arises as to whether the final stage retailing to the
consumer will follow through and "go digital" through increased B2C activity.
The UNCTAD report concludes that the main impediment to the takeoff of e­
commerce in the third world is inadequate information and communications
technology (ICT) infrastructure, as well as shortcomings in physical
infrastructure, logistics and trade facilitation.
2.4.1 Internet technology use for retail activities in South Africa
The mixed results in Asia, the US and Europe are generally far in advance of
what has been achieved in Africa. The UNCTAD report explains that
although Internet connectivity is slowly improving in Africa, e-commerce there
remained limited at the time of the study. Local Internet connection is now
available in all African capitals, and legal monopolies in Internet service
provision have almost disappeared, resulting in a 30% rise in data traffic from
the continent in 2001 alone. But the e-commerce infrastructure gap between
developed and developing countries is largest in Africa, where only one in
118 people use the Internet - or only one in 440, when the five countries with
the most users are excluded.
According to a study of South Africa's Internet industry by independent
technology research organisation World Wide Worx, the rollout of Internet
access services by South Africa's telecommunications operator (Telcom) is
2 It is actually inevitable that the greater majority of e-