E-commerce in Pakistan: Growth Potentials and E-payment Solutions

In Pakistan, millions of people have access to internet and now it has become essential part of their lives. It is now a driving force for innovation of all industries. After arrival of wireless service providers, internet users are growing rapidly. On the other hand, internet is still just a source of information sharing and social interaction. Its role in trade and business is limited. Some business organizations have adopted partial ecommerce solutions but no pure-ecommerce business model is implemented throughout the country. E-Commerce plays an important role in economic development. It reduces cost of products and services and creates new job opportunities. Major obstacles in the way of ecommerce in Pakistan are absence of cyber law, poverty, illiteracy and lack of infrastructure. Apart from these, the most challenging one is lack of suitable electronic payments system. Existing systems are either unavailable in Pakistan or not suitable for local entrepreneurs. In this paper, current potentials for ecommerce growth are explored and a new protocol "Dual-Network E-Payments Protocol" is proposed. Protocol is based on combination of IP and GSM networks. It satisfies all desired characteristics of e-payment mechanism. The protocol is quite secure, trust worthy and suitable for local infrastructure.