How e-commerce works


Success in e-commerce

Technical  and  organizational  aspects
12. Providing complete understanding of the
In many cases, an e-commerce company willproducts or services offered, which not only
survive not only based on its product, but byincludes complete product information, but
having a competent management team, goodalso  sound  advisors  and  selectors.
post-sales services, well-organized business
structure, network infrastructure and aNaturally, the e-commerce vendor must also
secured, well-designed website. A companyperform such mundane tasks as being truthful
that want to succeed have to perform 2about its product and its availability,
things: Technical and organizational aspectsshipping reliably, and handling complaints
and customer-orientedFollowing factors willpromptly and effectively. A unique property
make business of companies succeed inof the Internet environment is that
e-commerce:individual customers have access to far more
information about the seller than they would
1. Sufficient work done in market researchfind in a brick-and-mortar situation. (Of
and analysis. E-commerce is not exempt fromcourse, customers can, and occasionally do,
good business planning and the fundamentalresearch a brick-and-mortar store online
laws of supply and demand. Business failurebefore visiting it, so this distinction does
is as much a reality in e-commerce as in anynot  hold  water  in  every  case.)
other  form  of  business.
Customer-Oriented
2. A good management team armed with
information technology strategy. A company'sA successful e-commerce organization must
IT strategy should be a part of the businessalso provide an enjoyable and rewarding
re-design  process.experience to its customers. Many factors go
into making this possible. Such factors
3. Providing an easy and secured way forinclude:
customers to effect transactions. Credit
cards are the most popular means of sending1. Providing value to customers. Vendors can
payments on the internet, accounting for 90%achieve this by offering a product or
of online purchases. In the past, cardproduct-line that attracts potential
numbers were transferred securely between thecustomers at a competitive price, as in
customer and merchant through independentnon-electronic  commerce.
payment gateways. Such independent payment
gateways are still used by most small and2. Providing service and performance.
home businesses. Most merchants today processOffering a responsive, user-friendly
credit card transactions on site throughpurchasing experience, just like a
arrangements made with commercial banks orflesh-and-blood retailer, may go some way to
credit  cards  companies.achieving  these  goals.
4. Providing reliability and security.3. Providing an incentive for customers to
Parallel servers, hardware redundancy,buy and to return. Sales promotions to this
fail-safe technology, information encryption,end can involve coupons, special offers, and
and  firewalls  can enhance this requirement.discounts. Cross-linked websites and
advertising affiliate programs can also help.
5. Providing a 360-degree view of the
customer relationship, defined as ensuring4. Providing personal attention. Personalized
that all employees, suppliers, and partnersweb sites, purchase suggestions, and
have a complete view, and the same view, ofpersonalized special offers may go some of
the customer. However, customers may notthe way to substituting for the face-to-face
appreciate  the  big  brother  experience.human interaction found at a traditional
point  of  sale.
6. Constructing a commercially sound business
model.5. Providing a sense of community. Chat
rooms, discussion boards, soliciting customer
7. Engineering an electronic value chain ininput and loyalty programs (sometimes called
which one focuses on a "limited" number ofaffinity  programs) can help in this respect.
core competencies -- the opposite of a
one-stop shop. (Electronic stores can appear6. Owning the customer's total experience.
either specialist or generalist if properlyE-tailers foster this by treating any
programmed.)contacts with a customer as part of a total
experience, an experience that becomes
8. Operating on or near the cutting edge ofsynonymous  with  the  brand.
technology and staying there as technology
changes (but remembering that the7. Letting customers help themselves.
fundamentals of commerce remain indifferentProvision of a self-serve site, easy to use
to  technology).without assistance, can help in this respect.
This implies that all product information is
9. Setting up an organization of sufficientavailable, cross-sell information, advise for
alertness and agility to respond quickly toproduct alternatives, and supplies &
any changes in the economic, social andaccessory  selectors.
physical  environment.
8. Helping customers do their job of
10. Providing an attractive website. Theconsuming. E-tailers and online shopping
tasteful use of colour, graphics, animation,directories can provide such help through
photographs, fonts, and white-spaceample comparative information and good search
percentage  may  aid success in this respect.facilities. Provision of component
information and safety-and-health comments
11. Streamlining business processes, possiblymay assist e-tailers to define the customers'
through re-engineering and informationjob.
technologies.



1 A B C 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93