Regarding The Subject Of Electronic Commerce

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

It indicates 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; for instance, a customer may very well be considering financing services, others in asset management services and so forth. The result is a customer "profile", which produces a corresponding profile for the commercial offer: consequently the site reconfigures itself on the foundation 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 details about the product or service. 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 that was not always assured when product illustration is performed through intermediaries, due to wholesalers and shop assistants.

Through e-commerce, websites marketing messages are presented correctly, the strengths of the products are clearly highlighted to customers and different features compared to competing products may be adequately emphasized.

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

By studying online purchases produced 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 whole new product. They may react with a whole new advertise campaign. The collection of this data may be used to quickly correct any errors in marketing. Rather than using the old information channels, companies should anticipate to have more opportunities to catch weak but worrying signals.

Through e-commerce Web pages trading operations may 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, Community Developer Authorize`s recent blog post published on a site, becomes immediately operational for the entire market, without spending time for you to align the sales forces to the new directives.

In the matter of digital products, the electronic channel guarantees the immediate delivery of goods without the need to produce a physical copy of the product sent to the customer. Even in the case of physical products sellers can achieve considerable benefits if you take orders using the net. Requests online arrive in real time for you to sales management, which alleviates the necessity for one or more central warehouses, saving in 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 producer.

A computer company that receives orders from customers only by an e-commerce website could quickly get replenishment orders of computer components to its suppliers and taking delivery of what is only required to meet its commitments to customers. This would generate a very 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, whom shall keep away from it.

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

The e-shops may also stay open 24 hours a day, 7 days every week, answering questions from all over the world without worry or timetables or holidays. Flexibility is additionally 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. In comparison to a conventional commercial network in which the company proposes more products than the market's demand, for e-commerce it is the opposite. The market "pulls" as well as the company follows, trying to stimulate demand, but only from the inclinations observed within the market.

The e-commerce also brings new business opportunities

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