Regarding The Subject Of Ecommerce
Among 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.
Therefore the ability to recognize and treat each customer individually in a personalized way (mass customization). Many bank sites ask to their customers to specify their needs or interests; for instance, a customer may very well be enthusiastic about 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 website reconfigures itself on the basis of the interests declared through the customer tech and finance sector 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 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 that was not absolutely assured when product illustration is performed through intermediaries, due to 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 in comparison to competing products may be adequately emphasized.
An important 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 created by customers, the web page 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 new advertise campaign. The collection of these details 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 could also be performed more quickly and effectively.
A price change, if approved, may be seen by all at once, avoiding sales clerks or sellers mistakes. A commercial campaign, published on a website, becomes immediately operational for the whole market, without spending time for you to align the sales forces to the new directives.
When it comes to digital products, the electronic channel guarantees the immediate delivery of goods without having to produce a physical copy of the product sent to the customer. Even in the example of physical products sellers can achieve considerable benefits if you take orders using the net. Requests on the web arrive in real period 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 as well as the restructuring of the supply chain upstream from the maker.
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 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, who will keep away from it.
The Web sites, if properly dimensioned, can handle spikes of visitors without visible degradation of response times (sites such as Microsoft or Yahoo handle several million hits a day).
The e-shops may also stay open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, answering questions from all over the world without worry or timetables or holidays. Flexibility is also when it comes to capability 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. 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" 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 could generate new areas of business. It's, for instance, 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 may subscribe to a market research firm so that you can receive studies and research reports from their Internet sites. One area where new services are developing rapidly is tourism. Inside this area, you'll find numerous Information Providers that make it possible for you to get information about tourist destinations and make reservations at hotels. As an example, the subsector for skiing holidays is developing an extremely strong competition on the internet between French regions, Swiss cantons and Italian valleys, with very interesting opportunities from tourist viewpoint.
