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Title:
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E-COMMERCE FOR THE UNREACHED COMMUNITY |
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Author(s):
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Ashir Ahmed, Md. Asifur Rahman, Takuzo Ohsugi |
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ISBN:
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978-972-8939-36-6 |
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Editors:
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Gunilla Bradley, Diane Whitehouse and Gurmit Singh |
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Year:
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2011 |
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Edition:
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Single |
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Keywords:
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ICT, BOP, microfinance, e-commerce, social services, ePassbook |
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Type:
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Full Paper |
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First Page:
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93 |
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Last Page:
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100 |
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Language:
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English |
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Cover:
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Full Contents:
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click to dowload 
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Paper Abstract:
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Most people at the BOP (base of the economic pyramid, the largest but the poorest community in the world comprising 69% of world population) do not have access to e-commerce services. The way e-commerce is designed and practiced today does not enable their participation. The reasons are: their purchasing power is low, they do not have any means to make online payments, and there is no infrastructure to deliver the purchased items to their doors. To include these 4 billion people, we propose an e-commerce framework by engaging MFI resources and our recently developed ePassbook system. This paper shows how the BOP community can enjoy the benefits of the e-commerce service by using the proposed model. The advantages of making e-commerce available to the BOP are discussed, in addition to the challenges involved in implementing the model. |
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