Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
In recent years, the rise of e-commerce has revolutionized the way businesses operate across various sectors. Handicraft enterprises, too, have experienced tremendous growth through the adoption of e-commerce platforms. Through this study, we tried to achieve research objectives and shed light on the specific barriers and challenges that handicraft enterprises face when it comes to adopting e-commerce and how it has impacted their market access. Through the utilization of a framework for understanding barriers and challenges, the study aims to develop a comprehensive understanding of the barriers hindering e-commerce adoption in the handicraft industry. Primary data was collected from 545 samples located in different districts of Uttar Pradesh during field visits through a structured schedule using the random sampling method. The analysis of the research findings involved various statistical techniques, such as frequency analysis, cross tabulation. The data revealed how several handicraft enterprises left in adopting the e-commerce due to various legal and economic barrier they face and how the number has significantly reduced from adopted to non-adopted handicraft enterprises, and due to these barriers, their market access is also got limited to local level only. 69% of handicraft enterprises respondents had different levels of knowledge about e-commerce, 26.6% of enterprises accepted that they did not possess any kind of knowledge, and 4.4% had some knowledge about it. Further, it can be seen that the numbers have significantly reduced, from 51.9% of those who have adopted e-commerce to 48.1% of those who have not. Overcoming these barriers required education and awareness, infrastructure development, government support, and addressing cost and trust concerns to enable SMEs to fully embrace e-commerce.
Dwivedi et al. (Fri,) studied this question.