E-Commerce Training with Virtual Commerce Simulation

Over the last decade, commerce has experienced several major revolutions in size, structure, and competition. The importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has become more important within this market structure. Electronic Commerce, commonly known as electronic marketing or e-commerce that consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems, is more profitable and affordable than ever before. However, few SMEs have been taking advantage of e-commerce due to the lack of education and training in new technologies. This paper presents the case study of e-commerce training for SME’s with the aid of classical classroom training and “Virtual Commerce,” an online commerce game. In Virtual Commerce, every participant owns a company and a certain amount of digital money. They can act as a consumer that purchase from other participant sites and as a supplier for the others. Market conditions, discount rates, and requirements are set by the system operators. This methodology and training has applied to 30 SME’s from different sectors. The aim of the project is to lower the costs for the SME’s e-commerce training through e-learning and to improve participants’ abilities with online simulation.