The Truth About Ecommerce In 8 Minutes

One of the clearest advantages of an electronic channel, represented by e-commerce sites, will be the ability for the company to get in contact with their end-customers without an intermediary.

What this means is the ability to recognize and treat each customer individually in a personalized way (mass customization). Many bank websites ask to their customers to specify their needs or interests; one example is a customer may be considering financing services, others in asset management services and so on. The result is a customer "profile", which produces a corresponding profile for the commercial offer: consequently the website reconfigures itself on the basis of the interests declared by the customer and shows only offers that can be presumed to be compatible with his needs.

Direct contact with the market also allows companies to provide better technical information regarding the goods and services. This relieves sellers from having to reply to to customer's questions and permits the product's features and functionalities to be properly presented to customers, something which was not always assured when product illustration is done through intermediaries, because of wholesalers and shop assistants.

Through e-commerce, web sites marketing messages are presented correctly, the strengths of the products are clearly highlighted to customers and different features when compared with competing products can be adequately emphasized.

A significant advantage of direct contact with the customer is that the company can receive real-time feedback from the market.

By studying online purchases created by customers, the web site pages most frequently accessed by users or email messages sent by customers, the company will immediately realize how the market has seen a brand new product. They can react with a whole new advertise campaign. The collection of these facts may be used to quickly correct any errors in marketing. Rather than using the old information channels, companies should expect to have more opportunities to catch weak but worrying signals.

Through e-commerce Websites trading operations could also be performed more quickly and effectively.

A price change, if approved, can be seen by all at once, avoiding sales clerks or sellers mistakes. A commercial campaign, published on a website, becomes immediately operational for the entire market, without spending time to align the sales forces to the new directives.

In the matter of digital products, the electronic channel ensures the immediate delivery of goods without the need to produce a physical copy of the product sent to the customer. Even in the matter of physical products sellers can achieve considerable benefits if you take orders using the web. Requests on the net arrive in real time for you to sales management, which alleviates the requirement for one or even more central warehouses, saving within the storage of goods in periphery warehouses.

An extreme effect of electronic commerce can be represented by the reorganization of the commercial sector, with the disappearance of some figures like commercial intermediaries and the restructuring of the supply chain upstream from the manufacturer.

A computer company that receives orders from customers only by an e-commerce website could effortlessly get replenishment orders of computer components to its suppliers and taking delivery of what is only necessary to meet its commitments to customers. This would generate an extremely efficient supply chain by reducing inventory and work-in-process.

A digital commercial network allows for greater flexibility with respect to a physical network. A crowded shop can not attract other customers, finance who will keep away from it.

The Net sites, if properly dimensioned, can handle spikes of visitors without visible degradation of response times (websites such as Microsoft or Yahoo handle several million hits a day).

The e-shops can also stay open twenty four hours a day, 7 days per week, answering questions from all around the world without worry or timetables or holidays. Flexibility is also with regard to ability to respond to marketplace. Using information gathered in real time through its websites, the company can modify its proposals, promoting products that have difficulties, making more attractive deals if users indicate weakness in respect to competition. When compared with a conventional commercial network through which the company proposes more products than the market's demand, for e-commerce it is the opposite. The market "pulls" and also the company follows, trying to stimulate demand, but only from the inclinations observed in the market.

The e-commerce also brings new business opportunities

The ability to sell directly online to a wide audience of customers could possibly generate new areas of business. It really is, as an example, the case of financial information in the evolution of financial markets (stock exchanges, foreign exchange, etc.). You will discover several Internet providers who joined this business that sell quotes, financial news in real time, or offer opportunities to work online through the stock exchange. In general it's possible to develop many information selling services, which customers are disposed to pay. Currently you may subscribe to a market research firm so that you can receive studies and research reports from their Websites. One area where new services are developing rapidly is tourism. In this particular area, you will discover numerous Information Providers that allow you to get information regarding tourist destinations and make reservations at hotels. As an example, the subsector for skiing holidays is developing an extremely strong competition over the internet between French regions, Swiss cantons and Italian valleys, with very interesting opportunities from tourist point of view.