A SOLUTION TO IMPROVE E-COMMERCE IN SAUDI

A SOLUTION TO IMPROVE E-COMMERCE IN SAUDI ARABIA

A SOLUTION TO IMPROVE E-COMMERCE IN SAUDI ARABIA

By

Khalid A. Almansour

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to

The University of Liverpool

In partial fulfillment of the requirements

For the degree of

MASTER OF SCIENCE

31/01/ 2010

ABSTRACT

A SOLUTION TO IMPROVE E-COMMERCE IN SAUDI ARABIA

By

Khalid A. Almansour

E-commerce business is a booming business all over the world. It has shrunk the globe such that consumers can shop for items from all over the world with a click of a button. E-commerce has begun in Saudi Arabia recently, and there are many established online shopping sites, but most of these sites will not last for long due to many problems. This project researched these problems from the consumer side and business side. Solutions are proposed for both sides, a template was designed to guide e-commerce businesses for improved success.

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that this dissertation constitutes my own product, that where the language of others is set forth, quotation marks so indicate, and that appropriate credit is given where I have used the language, ideas, expressions, or writings of another.

I declare that the dissertation describes original work that has not previously been presented for the award of any other degree of any institution.

Signed,

Khalid A. Almansour

“This dissertation contains material that is confidential and/or commercially sensitive. It is included here on the understanding that this will not be revealed to any person not involved in the assessment process.”

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author wishes to thanks Easm Alzamil from Remal Technology as sponsor, Professor Gail Miles for the grate informative feedback and instructions, MR. Amer Al-Sulaim from Saudi Aramco for his continuous support, MR Salah Alzamil from STC for giving the author the chance to interview him, Mauawiah Taj from KFUPM for also giving the author the chance to interview him, some of the employees of Saudi Aramco for their participation in the survey, my family for their continuous support during my study.

Chapter 5

Internet users continue to grow around the world and MENA region is no exception (Amin, 2000; Devlin et al., n.d.; ElShenawi, 2001; Gray, 2001). The increase in the number of Local Internet service providers (ISPs), the establishment of Arabic language Web browsers and computer software, and greater consumer demand, have helped boost the Internet presence in the region. However, if Internet penetration around the world is taken into consideration, MENA is still lagging behind, which means that there exist prospects for further penetration. According to the International Telecommunication Union's data (ITU, 2001), Internet penetration was 2.2 percent in the Arab world compared to 3.2 percent in Latin America, 9.3 percent in Asia and 17.4 percent in the European Union. Internet adoption differs from one country to another. Some were fast to connect to the World Wide Web; others were concerned about security, cultural and political issues and therefore were slower in adopting this new medium. It is estimated that there are currently more than 3.1 million (Pastore, 2001) Internet users in the Arab world. By the year 2005, it is estimated that this ...