E-commerce - Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Chapter 2: Literature review
• Search problems
• Inadequate measurement ofweb application success
• Security (real and perceived) weaknesses and
• Lack of Intemet standards.
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Download delays, security weaknesses and lack of Internet standards will be
discussed briefly.
• Download delays: Download time is described as the amount of time it
takes for a Web client machine to receive and display a data file
submitted by a Web server after that file was requested by the client.
Download delays impede the development and use of Internet
technologies such as multimedia for B2C e-commerce. For example,
technology exists to show a television ad on a company web page.
However, the waiting time required before such an ad is downloaded
and shown is prohibitive, and therefore is not often used. Download
delays are responsible for the virtual absence of television-style 30­
second audio and video advertising over the Intemet (McCrohan,
2003).
For the most part, practical limits of multimedia use are established by
what e-customers think is acceptable download time. Under normal
computing conditions, e-customers find it objectionable to wait more
than a few seconds between computer processing cycles (such as the
amount of time it takes to load a web page upon requesting it).
Waiting more than half a minute is considered intolerable for e­
customers (van der Merwe & Bekker, 2003).
• Security weaknesses: Security threats exist for both e-customers and
for e-retailers. There appears to be sufficient technology for secure
B2C e-commerce transactions on the networks between server and