Impact of Social Media on Marketing Strategies - Dissertation Example

The revolution in E-industry has also brought innovations in the mind of buyers and sellers and all this has increased the concept of online shopping. The trend of online shopping is now increasing at an increasing rate throughout the world. Today, online shopping is at its boom like the dot.com boom in the 1990s (Orloff, 2012).Globally the e-commerce is growing exponentially. It has become the third-largest most popular internet activity and almost half of the internet users are now making online purchases.

The success of the e-stores like Amazon and eBay has brought the revolution in the online shopping mall and industry and this has encouraged many small and medium-sized retailers as well. At the same time, giant retailers that have been operating traditionally with a physical store have also started their online store. The success also reflects how beneficial e-commerce is among people. Considering all these factors like the growth, advantages, and the future growth of online shopping, Saudi Post has started their own online store with the name of E-Mall.

In 2010, Global online shopping and spending reached US$10 trillion which was only US$0.27 trillion in 2000. Among different parts of the world, the only United States and Europe contributed 79% of the revenue generated from e-commerce. The lowest share of e-commerce revenue in the globe is accounted by Africa and the Middle East which is only 3% (Kamaruzaman, Handrich & Sullivan 2010).There are several advantages to sell goods and services online and one of them includes retailers can sell products and services without having physical infrastructure.

Many small and large businesses are now taking e-commerce as a suitable way of offering goods and services. Through e-commerce one can achieve fast and high business growth and quick access to international customers.E-commerce technique has been greatly adopted by Western Countries were now an increasing number of people like to buy goods online. However, In terms of e-commerce, Saudi Arabia is a place that is not served properly. According to CITC (2007), 9% of the total Saudi organizations from the manufacturing sector have adopted e-commerce.

The market of e-commerce has a great potential to be adopted in Saudi Arabia. Among GCC countries, the retail sector of Saudi Arabia is the largest one and it has been predicted that the country would achieve $66.7 of business in 2012. One of the main reasons for this is the purchasing power of people living in Saudi Arabia. Hence, the retail sector has the potential to be catered through e-commerce. 1.2. Background Of The Study The study focuses on the adoption of E-commerce by Saudi Post by launching an e-mall.

The study also focuses on the challenges that the company faces as they introduce e-mall. Saudi Post is one of the leading postal services in Saudi Arabia which works under the Ministry of Post, Telegraph, and telephone of KSA. The postal services industry in Saudi Arabia has been facing major difficulties these days. One of the major hurdles is the advancement of technology like email services, online messengers which have badly affect services and it has become very limited.