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e-Commerce (EC)
It consists primarily of the distributing, buying, selling, marketing, and servicing of products or services over Internet. A unique property of the Internet environment is that individual customers have access to far more information about the seller than they would find in a brick-and-mortar situation. The 'electronic' or 'e' in e-commerce refers to the technology/systems; the 'commerce' refers to be traditional business models. It is also named "Web commerce" -- the purchase of goods and services over the World Wide Web with secure connection (HTTPS), a special server protocol that encrypts confidential ordering data for customer protection) with e-shopping carts and with electronic payment services. Today, it encompasses a very wide range of business activities and processes, from e-banking to offshore manufacturing to e-logistics.
The ever growing dependence of modern industries on electronically enabled business processes gave impetus to the growth and development of supporting systems, including backend systems, applications and middleware. Examples are broadband and fiber-optic networks, supply-chain management software, customer relationship management software, inventory control systems and financial accounting software. The emergence of e-commerce also significantly lowered barriers to entry in the selling of many types of goods accordingly many small home-based proprietors are able to use the internet to sell goods.
Technical and Organizational Aspects
Setting up an organization of sufficient alertness and agility to respond quickly to any changes in the economic, social and physical environment. A good management team armed with good and sound information technology strategy. A company's IT strategy should be a part of the business re-design process. Providing reliability and security , parallel servers , hardware redundancy, fail-safe technology, information encryption, and firewalls can enhance this requirement.
Operating on or near the cutting edge of technology and staying there as technology changes Providing an attractive website. The tasteful use of colour, graphics, animation, photographs, fonts, and white-space percentage may aid success in this respect. Streamlining business processes, possibly through re-engineering and information technologies. Providing complete understanding of the products or services offered, which not only includes complete product information, but also sound advisors and selectors. Naturally, the e-commerce vendor must also perform such mundane tasks as being truthful about its product and its availability, shipping reliably, and handling complaints promptly and effectively.
Customer-Oriented
A successful e-commerce organization must also provide an enjoyable and rewarding experience to its customers. Many factors go into making this possible. Such factors include:
Providing value to customers through e-commerce
Vendors can achieve this by offering a product or product-line that attracts potential customers at a competitive price, as in non-electronic commerce.
Providing service and performance through e-commerce
Offering a responsive, user-friendly purchasing experience, just like a flesh-and-blood retailer, may go some way to achieving these goals.
Providing an incentive for customers to buy and to return thtough e-commerce
Sales promotions to this end can involve coupons, special offers, and discounts Cross-linked websites and advertising affiliate programs can also help.
Providing personal attention
Personalized web sites, purchase suggestions, and personalized special offers may go some of the way to substituting for the face-to-face human interaction found at a traditional point of sale.
Providing a sense of community
Chat rooms , discussion boards , soliciting customer input and loyalty programs can help in this respect.
Owning the customer's total experience
E-tailers foster this by treating any contacts with a customer as part of a total experience, an experience that becomes synonymous with the brand .
Letting customers help themselves Provision of a self-serve site, easy to use without assistance, can help in this respect. This implies that all product information is available, cross-sell information, advise for product alternatives, and supplies & accessory selectors.
Helping customers do their job of consuming
E-tailers and online shopping directories can provide such help through ample comparative information and good search facilities . Provision of component information and safety-and-health comments may assist e-tailers to define the customers' job.
Implementation of e-Commerce
e-Commerce (EC) should be implemented with proper planning, consulting for an e-commerce project involves three levels: solution architecture consulting, business process consulting and technical implementation consulting. Please feel free to contact us to discuss your needs and requirements.
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e-Commerce
