Study shows business are slow to embrace e-commerce: get more from your computer than e-mail and a website - Facts & Figures - Brief Article

Black Enterprise, Dec, 2001 by Bevolyn Williams-Harold

Despite the hit that tech companies received last year, the use of e-commerce is still influential to the bottom line of a brick-and-mortar company, according to the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA). This is especially true for minority-owned companies that are using the Internet to attract customers and apply for government contracts.

"We need to convince minority-owned businesses that e-commerce is the way to go," says Ronald Langston, national director of the MBDA. "They must become engaged, or they will be left out of the global economy."

In a case study of minority firms with annual revenues of $500,000 and higher, the MBDA found that although more African American-owned firms created Websites and home pages to enhance their businesses, they did not make any further thrust toward e-commerce for a variety of reasons.

The study found that for 20% to 24% of the companies surveyed, their product or service (i.e., management consulting, insurance, or accounting services) did not require the use of or see a need for e-commerce, while 11% to 15% of the companies simply did not want it. Other barriers include an absence of a company infrastructure to support the use of e-commerce, the expense of creating and/or updating it on a regular basis, lack of expertise to maintain it, and a lack of comfort with technology to implement it.

WEBSITE AVAILABILITY VS.
E-COMMERCE PARTICIPATION

Comparing minority firms that have Websites
to those that use e-commerce

                   Website Availability   E-commerce Participation

Latino                     42%                      13%
African American           56%                      11%
Asian American             49%                      12%
Native American            54%                      10%

Note: Table made from a bar graph.

Source: Tomas Rivera Policy Institute for the MBDA