| |
| |
|
Ecommerce Information |
|
|
|
The Internet Challenge
In spite of the increasing attention on how the Internet is changing the business landscape, many small business owners are still struggling to understand its influence. But unlike the ceaseless blinking of the home VCR, the impact of the Internet cannot be ignored. The Internet provides an all-encompassing vehicle to connect us to the information and things we want. Browse for your desires through millions of pages of shopping, communications, entertainment, and business opportunities. Unfortunately, consumers are parked at the tail end of the Internet's evolution and as these users arrive at any given website, a fierce battle to manipulate their purchasing habits is being pursued. The battle has barely begun. The argument that the Internet is a fad or that it will never replace traditional commerce is redundant. It already has. Any invention that has the capacity to accelerate the delivery of products and services into the marketplace changes the economic and cultural landscape. The Industrial Revolution did it. The telephone did it. The automobile did it. The Internet will do it too. And because each technology builds on the momentum of its predecessor, the rate of acceleration intensifies. It is this intensification that many people find so disconcerting. The Internet breeds new business processes in the same manner that the automobile gave birth to suburbia, shopping malls and salvage yards. Like parents fawning over their newborn infant, few inventors are able to envision the long-term consequences of their creations. Pioneering inventions, like human development, bring challenges and opportunities along their way to maturity. It is always risky to assume a rigid outcome. The Internet is still in its infancy-its formative years-and it's during this phase that the greatest influence can be exerted. The Internet has both the power to create or destroy economic communities. The present momentum is focused on centralizing economic activity, in other words, building colossal portals that will attract consumer activity away from traditional Main Street retailers to these centralized hubs. Amazon.com is the foremost example of this trend. While use of this technology is a natural process of business evolution, the consequences on local economies are enormous. Economic activity, whether rural, urban or national, is the organizing backbone of our community structure. Removing or reorganizing a community's economic activity has a consequential impact on the community's well being. Historic examples abound from the microeconomics of a town built on the gold rush fever to the macroeconomics of communism. In both extremes, external forces created internal disintegration. The organizing efficiency and cost effectiveness of the Internet economy will have an incomprehensible impact on both the local and global economy. And because the circulation of money is a primary activity of our society, it is essential that we actively participate in how and where that money flows. So while the momentum of Internet technology may deter intelligent participation, by not participating we relinquish our responsibility to direct its flow into the hands of a few willing advocates. Small business in particular needs to participate in its development. The Internet is a major threat to the well being of the small business community, the backbone of our economy. While some predict the demise of these traditional brick and mortar businesses, it is not the Internet that will bury them but rather their unwillingness to use Internet technology intelligently. For small businesses to profitably compete in e-commerce, it is essential that this segment of the economy is empowered and provided with the tools and resources to understand, strategize and position themselves as viable competitors. Luke Vorstermans owns and manages a successful publishing and communications company and is the Editor of Business Dynamics magazine and content contributor to IR Design.
MORE RESOURCES:
Ecommerce - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Grow your Business with Emarketplace - Part III Increase Company ProductivityAfter years of hard work, finally your business started to pick up. You are selling more products then ever! You have lined up a good number of suppliers and buyers. 10 Second Internet Person, sound familiar? Some people do not understand the Internet idea of online commerce, but then again some people do not understand themselves either. To fully understand Internet Commerce you really only need to monitor your "clicking habits" for a few days to see where you are going and what if anything you are buying. Tell Them Whats in The Can! What does 'the can' mean? Well, its literal meaning relates to canned goods on supermarket shelves. If your can is up there among thousands of others, the label had better state pretty clearly exactly what's in the can. E-marketplaces from Sellers Perspective What is an E-marketplace anyway?E-marketplace is a business to business web based venue, where buyers and sellers meet online, generate business leads and conduct business transactions. The e-marketplace features are tailored in a manner so that a large numbers of buyers and suppliers can be serviced as a community. Grow Your Business Using B2B Emarketplace - Part I If you are a small to medium size company and selling or planning to sell products and services over the Net and still did not try out emarketplaces, you are simply loosing a great opportunity!Research firm eMarketer predicts that worldwide B2B ecommerce revenues will surpass US$ 1.4 trillion by the end of 2003. 3 Powerful Concepts That Climb Marketing Mountains You have probably heard many times how you should offer free reports. Like many of us, the idea of putting in work to give something away may have gone through you transparent. Choosing an Ecommerce Shopping Cart Choosing an online shopping cart is a big decision. Unlike a traditional brick and mortar business, your website is your only chance to impress potential customers. Website Marketing: 10 Resourceful Things You Can Do With A Product That Doesnt Sell Do you have any product that has not been moving well?Would you like to learn what to do with it?Here are website marketing secrets to help you:1. Sell the reprint/reproduction rights to the product. Two Pillars of a Successful Web Site For a web site to get close to fulfilling its potential, you need absolute clarity on two points. First, achieve clarity on what your site's core purpose is Is to provide information? Is it to complete direct sales? Is it to drive prospects to pick up the phone and call you? Is it to start a free trial? To register? The more companies I work with, especially larger ones, the more apparent it becomes to me that very few sites have absolute clarity of purpose. Leveraging Open Source Technology Open Source applications can bring unique value to business owners. Since the base application development costs of open source applications is free, small and medium business owners are able to leverage previously unobtainable technolgies against their sales objectives, operational costs and customer satisfaction levels. Doing Business Online - Private B2B Exchanges Business processes are the building blocks of an enterprise. If one of these processes fails to live up to its expectation, business starts to flounder. Tell Site Visitors What To Do Your site visitors make all the choices when it comes to browsing the Web.No other medium gives users, readers or customers such control over their own experience. Top Ten Qualities to Look for in an Online Pharmacy As you may have noted, there are thousands or even hundreds of thousands of websites selling pharmaceutical products or drugs. These are called ONLINE PHARMACIES or PHARMACIES ONLINE. How To Accept Credit Cards Without a Merchant Account To increase sales on your website, you must accept credit cards. To process credit cards, you could apply for a merchant account through your bank or other financial institution. Do You Need A Merchant Account? Deciding when to get your own merchant account for internet sales can be a confusing and expensive venture. If you have a small to medium sized business and only sell a small amount of products then having your own merchant account may not be the answer for you. Creating The Perfect Ecommerce Website If you're thinking of jumping on the bandwagon and going into business with your own ecommerce website, you'd do well to look at a few examples before you start. Finding out what a good ecommerce website looks like will help you know what to include - and what to avoid - when you start to set up one of your own. Accepting Credit Cards For Your Online Business Did you know that one of the best ways to increase sales for any online or offline business is to offer your customers the convenience of paying by credit card? As a merchant, you have several options available when it comes to becoming part of the credit card acceptance and processing chain. Here's a quick guide to get you thinking. How To Implement E-Business Solutions Successfully Pitfalls of E-business solutions installation processA large distribution company has decided to use a new online supply chain management solution. The people - those who were supposed to use the system - were quite skeptic about the ability of the system, as they did not have enough knowledge and had very little or no training in using a similar system. Online Merchant Account - Costs and Alternatives Merchant Account BasicsA Merchant Account is a commercial bank account established by a merchant to receive payment via credit cards. Three parts are required to accept credit cards. Selling Online for Newbies If you are interested in selling online, it is quite easy to get started. First of all you must have a product or service to sell.
|
| Good Credit Loans | home | site map | School Bus Clothing | Florida Pool Heating |
| © 2006 |
