Criteria in determining the best E-Commerce site in the Philippines Using AHP
Based Questionnaires
Casipit, Renz Aldrey B. Cobangbang, Rouneil R.
Abstract: E-Commerce transformed the
way consumers and businesses reach the
markets. The technology is pacing and
affects the way society view things in buying
and selling things in the market. In this
paper the researchers determine criteria in
choosing the right e-commerce site that
they need. The researchers made use of
AHP based questionnaires and conducted
interviews. The researchers selected three
criterias namely: Customer Support,
Popularity and Content. The e-commerce
site chosen are Lazada, Zalora and EBay,
The Consistency Ratio is gathered in each
sample to determine that their answer is
consistent or not and determine the average
weight for determining what criteria and e-
commerce site are preferred by the
respondents.
Introduction:
The technology is growing fast and affects
the society that even the traditional way of
selling or buying things on hand has been
changed. The development of the Internet
leads a new way of doing business that all
business operations is carried out
electronically.(Balwinder, 2014)The internet
Madayag, Nick Van M.
continues to establish itself as one of the
main modes of communication in the world
(Santos, 2013). With more and more people
connecting online, it is easy to see why the
Internet is growing as a medium if
conducting business. It is now called E-
commerce where its popularity is booming
that gives benefits among all the consumers
because of the ease of access in getting
products and services and creates new
opportunities for online businesses.(Kumar,
2016)
E-commerce is vital for many businesses to
remain in competitive markets; it is also an
important economic growth factor. Through
the use of internet, the business transaction
are made cheaper and more convenient.
(Santos, 2013)The significant factor in the
growth of users doing online business have
increased. Using the power of the Internet,
companies are able to gain access to
foreign markets and expand distribution
channels creating an effective system of
association between suppliers and buyers
(Starostin and Gulmez, 2016). Also with the
growth of of Internet and E-commerce,
cybertrust or the confident expectation of
the internet has become critical to the
success of e-services (Dutton and
Shepherd, 2006; Sun, 2010).
In the special report conducted by
uprgrademag.com, E-Commerce has
profoundly transformed the way consumers
and businesses reach their markets. It is
also mentioned in the report that the brick-
and-mortar shop is still the primary venue
for retail transaction. Visa e-commerce
Monitor 2014 showed that as much as nine
out of 10 Filipino consumers go online to
shop at least one month. The top reasons
why Filipino consumers go for online
shopping is Convenience (58%), price
(47%) and deals (46%).
The swift increase in the countrys internet
penetration rates which currently reached
over 44%, driven by the increasing adoption
of smartphones particularly by the younger
population as more of these have become
affordable, strongly contributes to the
growth of the industry. As mobile internet
penetration rises, internet usage is expected
to increase, helping e-commerce gain
increased popularity.
In the Philippines Republic at The Electronic
Commerce Act (ECA) or Republic Act No.
8792 was created to legalize e-commerce,
which includes electronic forms of
transactions, storage of information,
messages, and documents. The law also
covered crimes such as piracy, hacking and
others. E-commerce made way for
revenues in the year 2014, which was
recorded to be US$18.1 billion. By the year
2020, e-commerce is expected to contribute
to 25% of the country's GDP.
(http://www.dti.gov.ph/)
Review of Related Literature
Internet is the best medium for different
transactions because of its accessibility to
all who is familiar with it. Because of its fast
paced information transaction, E-Commerce
came into play, to provide better deals and
better options to consumers (Kremljak,
2016).
E-commerce can be categorized into
different types. Some of these are:
Business-to-business (B2B), Business-to-
Consumer (B2C), Business-to-Employee
(B2E), Business-to-Manager (B2M),
Consumer-to-Business (C2B) and
Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C). The most
common of them is the B2B, B2C and C2C.
Business-to-Business describes e-
commerce transactions between
businesses, such as between a
manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between
a wholesaler and a retailer (Nemat, 2011).
This is where a supplier sells in bulk
(consumer goods, commodities, industrial)
to the purchasing company.
Business-to-Consumers (B2C) describes
the activities of businesses serving the end
consumers and with products and services.
In addition to online retailers, B2C has
grown to include services such as online
banking, travel services, online auction,
health information and real estate sites.
Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) (or citizen-to-
citizen) electronic commerce involves the
electronically facilitated transactions
between consumers through some third
party.
Consumer-to-consumer, the oldest form of
e-commerce has facilitated in large part by
websites offering free classified
advertisements, auctions, forums, and
individual pages for start-up entrepreneurs.
C2C is a form of e-commerce we know,
used well before internet appeared. (Nemat,
2011)
Eyad Makki stated the by having retailers
focus on social media and by the opinion of
different people it garners acceptance to E-
commerce due to increasing social media
users in Saudi Arabia (Makki,2015). But
because of the fast pace technology, breach
of privacy on the internet is highly possible
(Smith R, 2007). Privacy is one concern
regarding E-commerce because of how
people understands it and users can hide
their personal information and perform
unethical or improper transactions on the
web. From the paper of Smith R they
identified 3 categories of from different
interpretation of privacy (Smith R, 2007)
1. The right an individual has in being able
to control access to personal information
about themselves.
2. The measure of control an individual has
over information about themselves, or who
has sensory access to them.
3. The state of limited access to an
individual and their personal information.
Methodology
The study made use of AHP questionnaires
and interviews to gather data regarding e-
commerce. The respondents were SLU
students that were chosen at random.
First step performed was to learn how to
weigh each values of an AHP sample to get
the needed CR (Consistency Ratio) which is
needed to identify if the respondents
answers lie within consistency which is less
than 10% or 0.10. A brainstorming of criteria
to be used and e-commerce sites to choose
was performed, and will be made use on the
table of the questionnaire. A value of 1, 3, 5,
7, and 9 are the given weights for the
respondent. In AHP, each weight represents
 different description like 1, which is Custo 9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9 Popu
interpreted as equally important, 3, which mer larity
is moderately important, 5, which is Supp
9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9 Cont
important, 7, which is very important, and ort
ent
9, which is extremely important.
Popul 9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9 Cont
arity ent
The second step, consisted on us floating
Figure 1: Sample of AHP-Based
the questionnaire to random respondents
Comparison in Defining Criteria of an E-
within SLU campus. A total of 11
Commerce Site
respondents on the questionnaire was
gathered with an additional 5 respondents
Area Comparative Rating Area
from an Informal Interview that we
conducted. The Informal Interview consists 9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9 Zalor

of 2 questions: Lazad a
a
1. What is the most important 9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9 Ebay
criteria/consideration in choosing an Zalor 9 7 5 3 1 3 5 7 9 Ebay
ecommerce site? a
2. What ecommerce site have you
Figure 2: Sample of AHP-Based
visited/viewed/transacted with and why?
Comparison in Selecting an E-Commerce
Site
Through brainstorming three criterias were
chosen to evaluate an e-commerce site;
customer support, content, and popularity.
Also in the same process the three e-
commerce sites that were selected are
Lazada, Zalora, and Ebay.

E- Commerce Criteria

Customer Support is the first criteria that

Area Comparative Rating Area was selected by the researchers. It helps
merchants tell exactly what a site visitor
likes or dislikes about their shopping
experience. User opinion provides valuable
input for improving web store in order to
optimize user experience.
Popularity is the second criteria that was
selected by the researchers. It determines
whether an e-commerce site is popular or
common to people in terms of site visitor per
day. It also reflects how good a site is.
Content is the last criteria that the
researchers selected. This includes what
products are available, how they are
presented (visual presentation), and proper
observance of grammar on the web site.
E- Commerce Sites
Lazada is part of Lazada Group which
operates mostly on Southeast Asia. Lazada
provides customers to an effortless
transactions by their access to the large
customer based in Southeast Asia
(Everything about Lazada
Philippines,n.d.).
Zalora is an online fashion store which
mostly deals with clothes. With a wide
variety of brands to choose from, Zalora is
the leading fashion store ecommerce site in
the Philippines. They provide free delivery
with multiple payment options such as credit
card, PayPal and cash on delivery
(WELCOME TO THE PHILIPPINES'
LEADING ONLINE FASHION
STORE,n.d.).
EBay provides a wide selection of products
to customers from common items up to rare
products. They have a number of 167
Million active buyers with 1 Billion live
listings which makes it as one of the
heavyweights in e commerce sites (Who
we are,n.d.).
Result and Discussion
The AHP Based Questionnaire that the
researchers float comprises of two
questions: first is the respondents must
select what criteria must an e-commerce
site have and the other is what e-commerce
site is popular in the Philippines. A total of
11 respondents answered the
questionnaire. Results shows that only 6
respondents have a CR of 0.1 or less on the
criteria and 7 respondents have a CR of 0.1
or less on the e commerce site. The
average weight of the Customer Support
criteria is about 33%, the Popularity criteria
is only about 22%., and the Content criteria
has 36.7%. While on the ecommerce site,
Lazada has an average weight of 32,8%,
Zalora has an average weight of 21.8%, and
EBay has an average weight of 37%.
Based on the weights of each criteria and
ecommerce sites presented earlier, it is
clear that on the criteria, Content is given a
much more importance than the other given
criterias while on the ecommerce part, EBay
is more preferred than Zalora and Lazada.
Additional results from the informal interview
conducted showed that 3 of the respondent
answered for credibility of the products
being sold and also the ecommerce site
itself. 1 answered for a good customer
support. 1 answered for a wide range of
products to be able to buy more products on
an ecommerce site. 3 respondents
answered Lazada for the recent ecommerce
site they have used/visited. Other e
commerce site mentioned is Zalora, Shopee
ph, Dynaquest, Bermor Techzone, Easy PC,
JDM Technohub, and PCworx.
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Rise of the Online Business: The
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Retrieved April 17, 2017, from
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utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&ut
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