E-Commerce in Saudi Arabia: Acceptance and Implementation Difficulties

Despite the fast growing economy, the dramatically increasing internet usage and the significant purchase power of Saudi Arabia compared to other countries in the Middle East, the evolution of E-Commerce remains slow and is inconsistent with such growth nor with the growth of ECommerce in developed countries. This paper is conducted for exploration purposes to initially determine the most significant inhibitors of the acceptance and implementation of ECommerce in Saudi Arabia for both merchants and individuals in order to conduct further quantitative research. A small sample of merchants and consumers is selected. The Saudi merchants, individuals and Saudis in USA data collected for this research is used to analyze inhibitors of acceptance and implementation of E-Commerce in Saudi Arabia. The most common inhibitors resulted from this research will be used for constructing surveys on a large nationwide sample for future studies. The study also proposes a framework for key decision makers and to be used in the further research in compliance with gathered data based on achieved analysis in this research.