An Exploratory Research of the Usage Level of E-Commerce Among SMEs in the West Coast of Malaysia

Previous studies have indicated that e-commerce development offers apromising way for business to meet the challenges of the ever-changingenvironment. It provides effective and efficient ways, such as buyerscan gather information rapidly about the availability of the productsor services, evaluate, or negotiate with vendors. However, previousstudies on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia have shownthat the application of e-commerce is still at its infancy. Thus, thisstudy investigates the usage level of e-commerce application for theSMEs in West Coast of Sabah, Malaysia. This achieved by circulating aset of questionnaire to examine the awareness and adoption ofe-commerce application by the SMEs, and recognize the impeding factorsto adopt e-commerce and the perception of e-commerce benefits towardsincorporating e-commerce in their business. The study found that theawareness and adoption level among the SMEs are still in its infancy,although the potential benefits were perceived to be important.