Abstract
Most people at the BOP (base of the economic pyramid, the largest but the poorest community in the world comprising 69% of world population) do not have access to e-commerce services. The way e-commerce is designed and practiced today does not enable their participation. The reasons are: their purchasing power is low, they do not have any means to make online payments, and there is no infrastructure to deliver the purchased items to their doors. To enable the participation of the people at BOP, we propose an e-commerce framework by engaging MFI resources and our recently developed ePassbook system. This paper shows how the BOP community can enjoy the benefits of the e-commerce service by using the proposed model. The advantages of making e-commerce available to the BOP are discussed, in addition to the challenges involved in implementing the model.
Highlights
E-commerce over the Internet has been in practice for more than a decade
Online payment mechanism and product delivery channel are the major components to provide e-commerce services
Developing the necessary infrastructure can be a way to allow 4 billion people at the BOP to enjoy e-commerce benefits but it may take decades to make this happen
Summary
E-commerce over the Internet has been in practice for more than a decade. E-commerce enables people to purchase products from a remote place at any time of the day and get the desired products delivered to their doors. According to [3], there is money at the BOP and their purchasing habits mean that they pay more for certain items than wealthier customers This BoP penalty is the consequence of local monopolies, inadequate access, poor distribution and strong traditional intermediaries. The members can withdraw their savings to purchase their daily needs such as soap, shampoo, rice, wheat, salt, and spices They can receive the same product at a cheaper price through e-commerce. There are few other items that the consumers purchase seldom but the local retailers visits the wholesale market frequently Keeping those items in the list would allow the BoP people to purchase at a lower price at the time of necessity.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
