Since its conception, the internet has aided millions of transactions. Following this, many companies have been lured into the doing business online. The Canadian society is more comfortable with the internet, and therefore online business is easy to conduct. However, the business has its weakness and limitations. Among them include lack of trust, privacy and security concerns, issues with copyrights and limitations of business types.
Lack of Trust
Winning the trust of customers has proven to be among the major limitations that online business face. For instance, most people find it difficult to provide their payment details online. Others do not trust the product being traded because of the lack of physical connection. It takes more than promises for companies to create a good rapport with the internet community (Rao, Lee, Connelly & Iyengar, 2018). However, the contemporary environment that includes the inevitable increase and penetration of technologies in the form of e-commerce has made it easy for such businesses to thrive. There are some security measures among other steps that online businesses are putting in place to win the growing clientele's trust.
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Privacy and Security Concerns
Thriving online businesses usually prioritize information privacy and safety. However, according to Rao et al . (2018), hackers can still breach the online security of companies and gain access to customer information and use them for their own personal and malicious gains. This implies that companies have a huge task when it comes to guarding valuable information. This is an exercise that is likely to attract more expenses. Following this, privacy and security concerns are said to be a weakness when it comes to engaging in online business. A good example is a case where a hacker obtains a customer’s bank account details and identity and withdraw money.
Issues with Copyrights
The internet has several businesses that have the same descriptions. Across the globe and even in Canadian cyberspace, there are a massive number of similar online businesses, and even some with similar trading names. Given the ubiquitous nature of the web, it is not easy to gain complete control of copyrights (Rao et al ., 2018). For instance, if someone develops a particular way of trading goods across the globe via the internet, then it becomes difficult to develop copyrights. Additionally, giving every other business the same copyright becomes redundant. Therefore, the mentioned issue becomes a limitation since you cannot be able to stop someone from duplicating your business model. For this reason, everyday online retailers and other business ventures experience copyright infringement.
Limitations of Business Types
Doing online business rules out the physical contact between the buyer and the seller. In essence, there are types of businesses that do not record optimum sales when done online. These kinds of business are those that require the feel and touch as part of tastes and preferences. Besides, some businesses deal with products that need the sense of smell (Rao et al ., 2018). For example, when you are selling a particular body spray that is new to the market through the internet, it becomes difficult to convince the customer. If the transaction was such that the buyer and seller were physically close, it would be easy for the customer to choose his or her most preferred spray. Other products such as automobiles occasionally come with mechanical challenges during purchase. Given the distance and lack of full trust, it would be more comfortable for the customer to see and inspect the car in person before making any payments.
Reference
Rao, S., Lee, K. B., Connelly, B., & Iyengar, D. (2018). Return time leniency in online retail: a signaling theory perspective on buying outcomes. Decision Sciences , 49 (2), 275-305. https://doi.org/10.1111/deci.12275
