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TOOLS AND BUSINESS PRINCIPLES OF
ECOMMERCE
If you want to buy a music CD for you
friend or send a greeting card or
flowers or buy a movie ticket then all
you have to do is to go online. It has
become that simple. Ecommerce is all
about selling and buying services and
products online, in the ecommerce way.
Electronic commerce is a hybrid created
by putting together the practices of
traditional businesses and information
technologies. CD-ROM is part of
ecommerce technology but the core of
electronic commerce is comprised of
network technologies like the internet.
In simple words, ecommerce is nothing
but online transactions of businesses
which features linked or internetworked
systems of the buyer, host and the
vendor. The number of business
transactions on the net has increased
drastically over the past few years. A
large range of commerce is conducted
this way which includes automatic data
collection systems, automatic inventory
management systems, electronic data
interchange, online transaction
processing, online marketing,
e-marketing, supply chain management and
electronic funds transfer.
Any company involved in ecommerce will
not be able to survive only because it
has a good line of products. For the
business to survive they should have a
well designed website that is secured,
network infrastructure, a well organised
business structure, excellent post sales
services and a competent management
team.
The concept of ecommerce is not entirely
new. It was first seen in the ‘60s on
private networks of large organisations
who exchanged electronic data. But today
internet can be accessed by every body
including the organisations. This
provides a suitable market for the small
enterprises to grow quickly and also
give them a fair chance to compete with
the large ones.
The different types of ecommerce
businesses are: B2C or Business to
consumer, G2B or Government to business,
C2C or consumer to consumer, B2G or
business to government and B2B or
business to business.
If a company wants to do well on the
internet it will need good
organizational and technical aspects and
be customer oriented. An ecommerce
organization should provide a rewarding
and enjoyable experience to it consumers
if it has to be successful. There are
several factors that should be optimised
to make this possible like giving a
discount if the customer comes back to
purchase for the second time. Customers
should feel that they are important for
the business and enjoy personal
attention.
The activities in an ecommerce business
include both traditional and new ones.
According to experts as the ecommerce
matures, it will not be easy to
distinguish between a traditional
merchant and an ecommerce merchant.
Certain services and goods are more
suitable for ecommerce than the
traditional business. There are many
financial products that cannot be sold
in the traditional manner. However,
products such as clothes and automobiles
are more suitable for the traditional
type of business.
Ecommerce saves money, allows customers
to purchase goods at any time and from
any where with just a few clicks of the
mouse. Your customers don’t have to bear
the traffic jams or carry the heavily
loaded shopping bags. |
