Harvesting the digital green: A deeper look at the sustainable revolution brought by next-generation IoT in E-Commerce

Abstract

The primary research question investigated was: What is the impact of next-generation Internet of Things (IoT) applications on the e-commerce sector? The specific objectives included exploring the challenges and benefits of IoT in e-commerce and examining the different IoT technologies used in e-commerce. The current study employed a qualitative method of conducting online interviews among seven participants in the e-commerce industry. A key finding was that IoT generally positively affects the e-commerce sector by improving operational efficiency and saving on costs. The advantages of using IoT in e-commerce were also noted to include enabling personalized consumer shopping experience and optimizing supply chain and inventory management that keeps costs. However, increased cybersecurity threat was realized to hurt IoT adoption in e-commerce. The IoT technologies that impacted e-commerce included radio frequency identification (RFID), sensors, and GPS. One limitation of this study was the small sample size, which restricted the generalization of the results. Meanwhile, one recommendation was that e-commerce firms should be encouraged to adopt IoT technologies to increase their efficiency and profitability in the long run.