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Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation
To purchase the complete
book go to our Eshop or contact
RIRDC on phone 6272 4819 or fax 02 6272 5877
The book cost $30 plus postage
and handling.
by Robert Parker and Franco Papandrea
Commissioned by the Rural Industries
Research and Development Corporation
Publication Number 02/003
The growth in the take-up of the Internet in regional Australia has been phenomenal.The percentage of adults outside our capital cities going online rose from 25%in 1998 to 44% by the end of the year 20001, a 76% increase in just two years. This growth has delivered significant benefits to regional communities and businesses through cheaper and faster communications.
Just as the Internet has grown in popularity, the use of electronic commerce is becoming more mainstream.As e-commerce technologies continue to improve and gain acceptance within the Australian community, we are witnessing the emergence of vibrant new industries, opening up a myriad of commercial opportunities for consumers and merchants alike,irrespective of their location.
The Rural and Regional Guide to E-commerce has been written specifically for rural and regional Australians as an introductory guide to e-commerce via the Internet. The guide aims to assist those rural and regional Australians already familiar with the Internet to learn more about e-commerce,and to provide food for thought as to how they might use e-commerce in their businesses and day to day lives.
The guide also contains a number of case studies highlighting regional businesses at the forefront of e-commerce development.
These businesses are adopting cost-effective online solutions resulting in cost-cutting, giving them a competitive edge.Practical advice on where to go for help and some strong basic principles are clearly outlined to provide practical answers to many of the questions consumers and businesses have about e-commerce.
Telstra Country Wide™ and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) are committed to facilitating the transfer and adoption of appropriate and beneficial information technology solutions for regional Australians.
It gives us great pleasure to commend The Rural and
Regional Guide to E-commerce to you as you set out on your e-commerce
journey, and we wish you every success in your e-commerce ventures.
| Peter Core
Managing Director Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation |
Doug Campbell
General Managing Director Telstra Country Wide |
1 National Office for the Information
Economy, Current state of play, June 2001.
Can you remember the first time you heard about electronic commerce? Chances are it was through media reports relating to the stock market boom in e-commerce start-up companies (dot- coms)as soaring company valuations generated headline news.
And unless you were an avid participant in the tech stocks game, you may have felt that watching the evening news was the closest you would ever come to the brave new world of e-commerce.
However,as each day passes,e-commerce becomes more accessible to,and useful for,Australians everywhere.Rural and regional Australians in particular stand to reap significant social and economic benefits from e-commerce as it helps to overcome ‘the tyranny of distance ’which so often isolates rural and regional communities from larger domestic and international markets.
With this in mind,The Rural and Regional Guide to E-commerce has been written specifically for rural and regional Australians as an introductory guide to electronic commerce via the Internet.
The Rural and Regional Guide toE-commerce will:
The Rural and Regional Guide to E-commerce aims to
demystify e-commerce and many of the issues relating to it, so that you
will be better equipped to determine what opportunities e-commerce can
offer you as a consumer or merchant in rural and regional Australia.
In Part I we look at the emergence of e-commerce, what e-commerce is, who can benefit from participating in it and why it is significant for rural and regional Australia.
Part II discusses what is required for connection to the Internet and e-commerce services, a number of safety and security issues to consider when participating in e-commerce, and the types of e-commerce services consumers and merchants can expect to find online.
Part III looks at e-commerce more specifically from a merchant point of view and aims to help familiarise you with some of the issues associated with becoming an online merchant.The discussion canvases questions relating to developing a business strategy, getting your e-business online, customer support issues, the marketing of your site, and the maintenance of good customer relations.
Complementing these discussions are a variety of case studies illustrating the implementation of e-commerce by rural and regional businesses and the outcomes of adopting this technology.
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