The influence of critical success factors on electronic commerce usage and a research about electronic commerce establishments operating in turkey

Marketing and trading in the electronic environment bring a variety of advantages for especially seeing the competitors, understanding the market and trends, examining customer expectations, requests and comments. However, it is imperative to establish an efficient e-commerce system and specialize in this area to capture all of them. Achieving success depends on several factors. This study serves to understand the impact of critical success factors in the use of electronic commerce. In order to achieve this, the methods of reviewing of literature and application of questionnaires were used. The model of the research is quantitative and its reviewing model is general reviewing model. In the literature review of the study, information that would shed light on the research such as what electronic commerce is, competition in this trade system, the benefits of electronic commerce to enterprises and types of electronic commerce were compiled. It has been determined that besides the specially designed web sites, where trade is carried out, the social media platforms are also used to understand the demands and expectations of the customers, to examine the competitors and to advertise. From this point of view, it can be said that for e-commerce to be effectively carried out, it has to be considered multi-faceted and it is essential to work for the establishment of legal conditions and for customers to have internet access everywhere. In the questionnaire, decision makers, managers, company owners or partners, of companies conducting electronic trade activities in different parts of Turkey were interviewed with convenience sampling method. A total of 371 people participated in the survey and 45 questions were directed to them. Directed questions are aimed at measuring their electronic trading performances and many variables such as the location of the companies, duration of their e-commerce activities, their legal infrastructure, etc. have been investigated. The results were analyzed with the help of the SPSS 21 statistical software. In the analysis of the study, validity and reliability analyzes, factor analyzes, descriptive statistics of scale scores, comparison analyzes as well as the impact of critical success factors on electronic commerce were tried to be evaluated. As a result of this study, critical success factors affecting electronic commerce have emerged. These 4 critical success factors found were the Effectiveness and accessibility of the website, Brand value for the business and the website, Social benefit for the customer, and Intra-business and government-focused managerial factors. According to findings obtained in the study, it would not be wrong to say that the usability of the website for the electronic commerce, employees' level of knowledge on electronic commerce, the marketing activities carried out in the digital environment, the methods and speed of communication, listening to the customers and establishing an effective process affect the performance of electronic commerce. The limitation of the study was that people participating in the survey were limited and that the answers given were assumed to be true/sincere.