Research and Development Directorate General. Xunta de Galicia. Information Society Programme.
E-payment methods and e-commerce in micro enterprises.

Retail trade in Galicia is characterized by a high degree of atomization, heterogeneity and dispersion. There is also a massive rejection to the use electronic payment means, mainly due to the high commissions applied when using cards. These facts, jointly with the threats that represent the superstores (wider schedules, better negotiation ability for supply purchases, etc.), come out in a set of risks and short term threats for the sector. In the same way, innovation is not encouraged at all with this situation.

Therefore, given the importance of retail trade in Galicia, the objective of this project is to carry out a detailed study to help the deployment of the Information and Communication Technologies within this sector. This work will be carried out taking in account the particularities specifities of the merchant, in a reasonable and coherent manner .

This study will contemplate, among other points, the impact that introducing ITC in the retail traders’ business processes has. Once the trader’s needs have been identified, the most appropriate ITC solutions should be brought out. This will permit the retailers to adopt those instruments that better fulfil their demands, improving their situation in the market.


Background

For the last ten years, retail trade in Spain has faced a strong competition with superstores. These ones have progressively increased their market share, reaching by far a more competitive position than traditional merchants. Hypermarkets and superstores have gathered together in distribution chains and have expanded their business from traditional goods to a wide range of services.

As far as the information and communication technologies are concerned those organisations count with joint sell, management and storage systems, which are generally inaccessible for retail trade (positioning of goods in any of their points of sale, card acceptance with low commissions for the merchants…).

In some sectors (as the electrical household appliance) this problem has been solved through the constitution of big retail chains bringing together traditional shops, allowing them to share similar benefits than superstores.

In addition to this, the business to consumer (B2C) launch on the Internet represents another threat for retail trade. It is concentrated in just a few sectors at the moment (travel, books, computers…), but introduces new challenges to the merchants.

Some ideas have been suggested to solve this problem: Best practice examples in the use of B2C have been analysed and their success keys have been disseminated, singular solutions have been offered from bigger organisations, (La Galería Virtual de Caixa Galicia, for instance)… However B2C market is fundamentally dominated by big companies.

Traditional commerce has got an advantage against electronic commerce: the habits of the consumers. It would be desirable to be ahead of the possible change of these circumstances, as the situation might change in the future.

On the other hand, a few technological solutions have been produced to enhance the business management: Money collection trough ADSL (COMBA from Teldat, ADSL Point of Sale –POS- from La Caixa), virtual shops…These are partial solutions, in any case; Galician retail trade, however, lacks of a study putting together the sector needs with the technological solutions available.

In addition to this, there are some other technologies or processes that could be applied to the retail commerce, as P2P for positioning goods in other shops that are independent but cooperative; management of tax refunds trough TaxFree; technological advanced customer relation management, business to business commerce, stock consultation to wholesalers… The introduction of this solutions trough modern communication lines should not be a problem. It is necessary, however, a previous strategy oriented to the solution of the real needs of retail trade and adding value to it.


Concrete objetives and interest

Comerci@ project has the following main goals:

1. - Identification of needs and risks of retail trade in Galicia in order to determine which of them that can be overcame trough ITC means.

2. - Analysis of ITC based solutions or any other alternative so that retailer needs can be fulfilled.  

3. - Observation of similar national or international best practice examples for a further dissemination of ITC usefulness among merchants.

4. - Technological literacy and awareness campaigns to Galician traders trough expert panels and user discussion groups.

5. - Wide dissemination of results among enterprises, administrative organisations and other institutions  

Taking in account the importance of retail trade in Galicia, the achievement of these goals through the Comerci@ project will provide us with a better knowledge of the problems of this sector. This will help to streamline ITC investments and to enhance productivity, as far as the existing or emerging technologies that are not adapted yet to the needs of retail trade have been identified.


Applicability

The main result of the project will be a working plan, based on the previous lines, which will help and guide Galician merchants. This plan will identify the action lines to be followed, as well as the technological solutions to be applied to the problems faced by this sector.

On the other hand, the Galician state-of-the-art regarding the utilisation of ITC solutions will be totally identified. Those technologies not fully adapted to the retail trade needs will be also brought out, boosting new business opportunities and developing technologies in later stages.


Methodology, hypothesis, work plan and chronogram

Task 1: Identification of needs and risks
All the needs and risks faced by the Galician retail trade sector will be identified. Those needs are not just the technological ones, but the economic, logistic, etc. This will be a crucial task, constituting the basis for the rest of the project. To carry out this task working panels, with an interdisciplinary group of trade experts, users, and technology specialists will be organised.

Task 2: Identification of needs and/or risks to be overcome through ITC
Once we have analysed all the needs and risks, those capable of being overcome trough ICT will be chosen. It will be basic for this task a detailed observation of the ITC use among retail trade members. A DAFO diagram with the chosen options will be drawn up.

Task 3: Identification and evaluation of previous experiences
An assessment of national and European practical case studies and similar experiences will be carried out.

Task 4: Analysis and evaluation of alternative solutions

From the documentation generated in the previous tasks, an analysis of the alternatives and solutions for the ITC surmountable obstacles will be carried out. In the same way the related solutions will be assessed in order to discover most appropriate one.

For these purposes the following activities will be carried out:

1.- Definition of the system's hardware and software architecture, as well as communications and applications assessment.

2.- Definition of the technical support necessary to carry out the installation of the system and its maintenance.

3.- Definition of a formation plan, bearing in mind the grade of penetration of the ITC. Through courses adapted to the concrete necessities of the Galician trade, technological literacy of the merchants would be the main goal

4.- Definition of the necessary requirements to install the system, from space necessities to others of technological type.
5.- Determination of the acceptance of the proposed solution among the users, as well as the readiness for their installation and maintenance.

6.- Definition of the impact of the proposed solution in the business process.

Task 5: Evaluation by user and expert panels:
The proposed solutions will be analysed by trade experts and a group of users in order to ensure its feasibility and usefulness. The necessary corrections will be made to ensure its adaptability to the sector.

Task 6: Drawing up of the final report
From the proposed changes by the user and expert panels a final report will be produced, containing the proposed solution and the work plan.

Task 7: Dissemination of results
The obtained results will be sent to the traders, associations, institutions, administrative bodies… so as to further facilitate them to be accessed.

Task 8: Project management
During the project’s life it will be managed and coordinated in a way that will permit us to achieve the proposed objectives, identify plan deviations, and ensure the quality of the results and the fulfilment of contractual agreements among the member partners


Experience of the team

The “Asociación de Mujeres Empresarias de la Provincia de Pontevedra (APE)” is a non-profit organisation created in 1989. It is a multisectorial and representative institution made of woman entrepreneurs, professionals, managers and executives from the provincia of Pontevedra. It belongs to different regional and national entrepreneurial organisations, among others: the Confederación de Empresarios de Pontevedra. (C.E.P.), the Confederación de Empresarios de Galicia. (C.E.G.), the Confederación Española de Organizaciones Empresariales. (C.E.O.E.) and the Federación de Autónomos de Galicia.

As far as its integration into the woman entrepreneurial organisations is concerned , it belongs to the Federación de Empresarias de Galicia (F.E.G.A.), the Organización Nacional de Mujeres Empresarias y de Gerencia Activa (O.M.E.G.A.), the Fundación Galega da Muller Emprendedora (FU.GA.M.E.) and the Federación Iberoamericana de Empresarias (FIDE).

The following are the goals of the association that should be highlighted:

Defence and promotion of the women interests as entrepreneurs, professionals, managers and executives.

Promotion of women participation in entrepreneurial organisations’ representative bodies.

Promotion of vocational training and cooperative spirit.

Organization of events to raise general information awareness among associates.

Publication of magazines, newsletters and other materials in order to provide information on general topics and to promote the organisation activities.

The association has also developed numerous activities:

Organisation of ITC courses:

- "Pérdelle o medo a Internet" (2001). Travelling bus in collaboration with FEGA and
   SGI”.

- "Empresaria e Xestión Informática" (2002). Travelling bus in collaboration with          
   FEGA and SGI.

They have also collaborated in the FORO VIRTUAL DE EMPRENDEDORAS, a virtual classroom for enterprising women. It offers the possibility of developing distance learning courses and provide full information for the creation of an enterprise.

The association has also collaborated in the in the organisation of different events:

-    “European Congress of Woman Entrepreneurs” (1993)
-    “Conference on Linux” (2002)
-    “Conciliación de la vida familiar con la laboral” – Harmonizing family life and working life-(2002)
-    " Claves de una pyme para triunfar" –Keys of success for a SME- (2002)

One of our most popular initiatives has “La obtención del coste cero de la baja Maternal” (Getting a zero cost from maternity leave), which after being presented and approved by the Consellería de Familia was further implanted in Galicia and the rest of Spain.

With regards to European projects and initiatives, the association is acting as a partner in:

- EQUAL PROMOCIONA, as members of FEGA and OMEGA.
- EQUAL COMPÁS. Mancomunidad  del Área Intermunicipal de Vigo.
- INTERREG CECOTRANS collaborating, among others, with the Confederación de Empresarios de Pontevedra.

The association counts with a technical office which offers advice for the creation of new companies and for the existing ones.