Useful Facts I Bet You Never Knew About Electronic Commerce
One of the clearest advantages of an electronic channel, represented by e-commerce web pages, is the ability for the company to make contact with their end-customers without an intermediary.
Therefore the capability to recognize and treat each customer individually in a personalized way (mass customization). Many bank web sites ask to their customers to specify their needs or interests; for example, a customer could be enthusiastic about 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 foundation of the interests declared by the customer and shows only offers that will be presumed to be compatible with his needs.
Direct contact with the market also allows companies to provide better technical details about the services or products. 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 which was not absolutely assured when product illustration is done through intermediaries, due to 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 may be adequately emphasized.
An essential 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 produced by customers, the web site pages most frequently accessed by users or e-mail messages sent by customers, the company will immediately realize how the market has seen a brand new product. They can react with a new advertise campaign. The collection of these details may be used to quickly correct any errors in marketing. In place of using the old information channels, companies should expect to have more possibilities to catch weak but worrying signals.
Through e-commerce Sites trading operations can 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 guarantees the immediate delivery of goods with no 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 period to sales management, which alleviates the requirement 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 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 necessary 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 shall keep away from it.
The Web sites, if properly dimensioned, can handle spikes of visitors without visible degradation of response times (web pages such as Microsoft or Yahoo handle several million hits a day).
The e-shops can also stay open 24 hours a day, seven days per week, answering questions from all around the world without worry or timetables or holidays. Flexibility can also be with regard to ability to respond to marketplace. Using information gathered in real time through its sites, the company can modify its proposals, promoting products which have difficulties, making more attractive deals if users indicate weakness in respect to competition. When compared with a conventional commercial network by which the company proposes more products than the market's demand, for e-commerce it really is the opposite. The market "pulls" and 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 can potentially generate new areas of business. It is, for example, the situation of financial information in 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 over the stock exchange. In general it's possible to produce many information selling services, which customers are disposed to pay. Currently you may subscribe to a market research firm in order to receive studies and research reports from their Sites. One area where new services are developing rapidly is tourism. Within this area, you will discover numerous Information Providers that permit you to get information about tourist destinations and make reservations at hotels. For instance, the subsector for skiing holidays is developing a really strong competition online between French regions, Swiss cantons and Italian valleys, with very interesting opportunities from tourist perspective.
