Pabedinskaitė, Arnoldina Ona

The development of social networks leads to new ways of marketing communication and poses new scientific challenges. The growing importance of B2B and B2C communication and the relationship with the customers is influenced by dynamic changes in the e-marketplace. Understanding and implementation of the innovative tools for communication with users on social media channels help increase interaction. The aim of the article is to analyse and identify the peculiarities of marketing communication via social networks in different countries as compared with Lithuania. The study presents a variety of social networks, indicates the peculiarities of Lithuanian B2B and B2C communication in social networks in comparison with the Netherlands, Germany, Israel, Russia, and Ukraine. The following methods were employed: the comparative analysis of scientific literature, inquiry, observation, cross table analysis and analysis of variance.

Spread of information communication technologies (ICT) is exerting an immense influence on all areas - both businesses and even social movements. E-commerce is likely to be exposed to the largest influence and competitive pressure. Regardless of the fact that the number of Lithuanian consumers using electronic commerce is growing, it is considerably smaller than the average of the European Union. The aim of this article is to perform an analysis of the current situation in the field of e-commerce in Lithuania and to identify main factors of e-commerce development. Research methods: comparative analysis of scientific literature, statistical data processing methods.

This paper analyses the factors affecting the development of e-commerce. Based on an analysis of scientific sources, the following factors and indicators reflecting them have been chosen for the quantitative analysis of the impact of external environment factors: technological factors - Internet access, the demographic structure of the population, namely, ratio of women to men in the population, ratio of working-age to non-working-age population, computer and Internet literacy of the population; economic factors GDP, the employment rate, minimum wage and consumption expenditure per capita. The correlation analysis performed on the basis of the EU-27 data shows the highest correlation coefficients between the volume of e-commerce and the Internet usage, computer and Internet literacy, employment rate and the minimum wage. A strong relationship is also between the scale of e-commerce and the integrated Networked Readiness Index as well as the favourability of the ICT environment in a specific country.

A successful business development cannot be currently imagined without the active use of cutting-edge information technologies and the Internet. Nowadays, technologies offer a wide range of opportunities for entering the international market and expanding the existing one by various methods. In 2011, Lithuania ranked 22nd by the volume of e-commerce among the EU member states with 11% of individuals purchasing online compared to the total number of the population, while in the EU the number of e-commerce users accounts for 34% on average. Therefore, although the number of e-commerce users is continuously growing, the penetration of ecommerce in Lithuania is far below the EU average. The aim of this article is to perform an analysis of the development of e-commerce in Lithuania and to identify some characteristics of e-consumers’ behaviour. Research methods: comparative analysis of scientific literature, statistical data processing methods.