The Basic Facts Of Internet Commerce
One of the clearest advantages of an electronic channel, represented by e-commerce web pages, will be the ability for the company to make contact with their end-customers without an intermediary.
This implies the capability 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; by way of example, a customer could be interested in 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 web Main Page reconfigures itself on the basis of the interests declared through the customer and shows only offers that are presumed to be compatible with his needs.
Direct contact with the market also allows companies to provide better technical details about the service or product. This relieves sellers from having to answer to customer's questions and permits the product's features and functionalities to be properly presented to customers, something that was not necessarily assured when product illustration is performed through intermediaries, because of wholesalers and shop assistants.
Through e-commerce, 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 vital advantage of direct contact with the customer is the fact that the company can receive real-time feedback from the market.
By studying online purchases made by customers, the website 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 brand new advertise campaign. The collection of this information may be used to quickly correct any errors in marketing. In place of using the old information channels, companies should expect to have more opportunities to catch weak but worrying signals.
Through e-commerce Sites 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 site, becomes immediately operational for the whole market, without spending time to align the sales forces to the new directives.
When it comes to digital products, the electronic channel ensures the immediate delivery of goods without having 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 web arrive in real time for you to sales management, which alleviates the necessity for one or maybe more central warehouses, saving within the storage of goods in periphery warehouses.
An extreme effect of electronic commerce may be represented through the reorganization of the commercial sector, with the disappearance of some figures like commercial intermediaries and also 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 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 really 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, who will keep away from it.
The Net sites, if properly dimensioned, can handle spikes of visitors without visible degradation of response times (web sites for example Microsoft or Yahoo handle several million hits a day).
The e-shops may also stay open twenty four hours a day, seven days per week, answering questions from all around the world without worry or timetables or holidays. Flexibility is additionally in terms of capability to respond to marketplace. Using information gathered in real time through its sites, the company can modify its proposals, promoting products that have difficulties, making more attractive deals if users indicate weakness in respect to competition. Compared to a conventional commercial network through which the company proposes more products than the market's demand, for e-commerce it's the opposite. The market "pulls" as well as 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 quite possibly generate new areas of business. It is, for instance, the situation of financial information in the evolution of financial markets (stock exchanges, foreign exchange, etc.). You will find several Internet providers who joined this business that sell quotes, financial news in real time, or offer possibilities to work online over the stock exchange. In general it's possible to produce 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 Websites. One area where new services are developing rapidly is tourism. In the area, you can find numerous Information Providers that allow you to get information regarding tourist destinations and make reservations at hotels. For instance, the subsector for skiing holidays is developing a really strong competition on the web between French regions, Swiss cantons and Italian valleys, with very interesting opportunities from tourist point of view.
