eCommerce and Jamaica - are we there yet?
Jamaica- It’s just that there has been so much hype and talk plus news of a litany of aborted and on hold projects; with the few success stories linked to Jamaicans living overseas or a few others with strong links to the local Financial sector.
Back in 2001, Minister in charge of Technology Philip Paulwell, promised the coming of the electronic transactions act that will herald Jamaica being the ecommerce hub of the region. That eTransactions Act finally came in early 2007. It’s October 2007 and a new government and a new Minister Clive Mullings are in charge of educating and exciting the Jamaicans about the lifestyle and business opportunities that the law now supports. This act is of course late, especially since Bermuda managed to pass from 1999.
So where are we now?
Banking: Are Jamaican banks prepared or preparing to invest in systems that will eliminate their primary worry of fraud. What changes will have to be made to the Banking Act to facilitate ecommerce? Scotiabank and NCB have credit card facilitation services now, but the cost of using it is prohibitive to startups and many use the US based Paypal.com to handle credit card transactions instead.
Shipping: Why does it cost so much to ship from Jamaica? How practical will it be to ship clothing, arts and crafts, and gourmet foods? Very. For example, there is J$600 fee plus $5 stamp for each export entry filed for customs. An export entry is required per customer receiving an exported item from Jamaica. Therefore, if someone were to order an item from a Jamaican website costing a total of US$20 ($1,400), the site owners would have to pay J$605. This figure cannot be passed on to the consumer and therefore makes doing the fulfillment aspect of an e-commerce business with the goods leaving directly from Jamaica a financial unfeasible.
Technical: What expertise exists in Jamaica to assist local companies in building ecommerce systems? There are now about 3 web development firms who have experience in setting up ecommerce focused websites –from an information architecture, content that drive sales, programming that integrates payment systems.
Internet Access: Due to increased competition in the ISP market and with Wireless Internet Access emerging – the cost of Internet access has dropped a lot since 2001, but the internet penetration is still below 40% with the cost of the main access device- the PC still out of the reach of some.
Where We Want to Be.
When Bermuda enacted their Electronics Transactions Act in 1999, they created a Ministry of Telecommunications and eCommerce headed by a woman, Renee Webb, who was the first Minister worldwide to have E-Commerce as a Ministerial title and a department added to it.
Add to that Bermuda is the only offshore jurisdiction that has local partners working with First Data Corporation, the largest third-party credit card processor in the world. Three quarters of U.S. Fortune 100 companies have a presence in Bermuda. Further, they seem to have all angles covered from their infrastructure in terms of the telecoms, ISPs, Network and Security People, to the application side of things by securing Payment Gateways, Web development and ASP support. And to round off that picture, they’ve sewn up investors and insurers, all making ecommerce in Bermuda working pretty smoothly. The country has over a hundred ebusinesses operating from its shores.
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I’ll be honest, Jamaica seems to be miles ahead of the rest of the Caribbean when it comes to online presence. This blog, techjamaica.com and all the video sites are way ahead of what any of the other countries have to offer. It wouldn’t be at all surprising if Jamaica did in fact become the ecommerce hub of the region.
Interesting article. From your article it seems that Jamaica needs alot more trained I.T people, but in recent times I’ve been hearing persons say that the I.T field is too saturated. What’s your take on this issue?
IT field is saturated? With what? With who? Certainly cannot be website programmers, web designers, software programmers.Tell me in more detail in what way is the IT field saturated. I’m curious
Oneil I would agree with you in the sense that I have found a lot of paper techies in the market place. However quite a lot of then don’t know what a computer is nor what the concept of a computer is. One the other hand how much opportunities are there for qualified professionals in Jamaica, and at what rate of compensation?
Richard, i so agree with you that there are loads of paper techies and dreamer techies, but there is still is a huge hold to fill for qualified, driven IT professionals for all areas. Regarding compensation…it’s all about the negotiation, you have to communicate your worth, value to the company hiring or client buying your services…and if not…become an entrepreneur and sell your services to the world using the Web, you see what them Indians and Russians are doing.
Excellent article and great feedback. I personally don’t see Caribbean entrepreneurs being able to ship low price items from their countries to major markets cost-effectively for some time - Govt. like the revenues too much.
As for eCommerce, yes Paypal is the best way by far and that is because our Govts. don’t get it. When enough people can educate the ministers and point to the results in other countries, especially Bermuda, then we will make real progress.
Another immediate focus should be fostering eCommerce WITHIN countries - the ability to accept local debit cards (Multilink in Jamaica) and ship within the island would open tons of new opportunities for local online shops and as internet penetration increases, even more people will have opportunities to make real money.
Imagine the craftsman in Negril can now sell his things to people in Kingston without traveling to town or going through a middle man.
good post ingrid
as david indicated though, shipping costs are a major factor for jamaica-based ecommerce operations. til the govt. wakes up, those who can generate serious sales should consider getting a dropshipper in the U.S.
fostering ecommerce within jamaica .. hmmm, any stats on what % of persons pay their traffic fines or other govt. related bills online? the facilities are there. jamaican people love stand up in line though. i still marvel at the people who stand in line at scotia to pay a light bill when they can pay it online. now i only join a line if i absolutely have to.