Recognition of business risks when purchasing goods on the Internet using GIS: experience from Slovakia

Abstract

For operators of Internet shops and their investors on the one hand, and suppliers on the other hand, knowledge of the consumer market is becoming critical in terms of the risk of non-payment for purchased goods, as most small e-shops maintain their stocks according to current demand. The aim of this paper is to identify customers who come from different districts of Slovakia and display a certain type of consumer behavior regarding the risk connected with willingness to pay for goods purchased via the Internet. To solve this problem we used data from a specialized e-retailer and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a Decision Support System generator for constructing maps of consumers to investigate the operation of an e-shop. In the article, we used data from the years 2012–2015 concerning 489 buyers, including their addresses and other geographical data about the consumers and their purchases, and integrated them into the GIS environment. Subsequently, the data were analyzed and documented by means of GIS and maps of consumers were generated. The result of this study is to show that GIS can play a significant role in the decision-making process of e-shops in support of a manager’s experience. The geographical results were evaluated statistically in order to offer a better information capability.