FIGURE 2  Main Barriers of Internet Usage 

Taxation of Internet sales

45%

Finding staff with e commerce

40%

Cost of Internet access

expertise

35%

30%

25%

Costs of e commerce site

Unsupportive business laws

20%

15%

10%

5%

Organizational changes

0%

Face to face customer interaction

Privacy and security issues

Use as part of business strategy

Customers do not use the technology

Inadequate legal protection

Prevalence of credit card use

Germany

Global

Source: CRITO Global E Commerce Survey, 2002; weighted by the total number of establishments. 

After the comparison of barriers among different industry sectors, as well as a comparison 

between Germany and the results of the global sample, the following figures provide a more 

detailed view of differences between SMEs and large establishments within the three industry 

sectors. The scale ranges from 1  not at all  to 5  very significant  obstacles. The impeding 

factors for SMEs and large establishments are not very different, but slight differences are still 

observable.

In the manufacturing industry, large firms consider the need for face to face interaction with 

customers more important than SMEs do (Figure 3). In this industry, trust seems to still be 

dependent on personal contacts. It might be possible that large establishments have to revise their 

opinion because SMEs do not seem to be as worried as large establishments might expect. On 

average, SMEs in the manufacturing industry are more optimistic than the overall average of all 

industries, while large establishments encounter more obstacles than the average. This holds also 

for making needed organizational changes to accommodate e commerce use, where large 

establishments expect more difficulties than SMEs do. 

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