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 Definitions:
The
terms e-commerce and e-business often are used interchangeably.
However, ecommerce refers only to business-to- consumer (B2C)
and business-to-business (B2B) selling over the Internet. In
contrast, e-business extends beyond e-commerce to include a
wider dependency on the Internet.authenticate both parties. |
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The
easier and more satisfying it is for your customers to do
business with you, the more likely they will be to begin making
all their purchases from your catalog—even purchasing those
items they used to buy from another vendor. The ease and convenience
of shopping from your online catalog will make it less likely
for them to switch to a competitor. Internet commerce provides
an entirely new channel for marketing, selling, and supporting
your products and services and for communicating with your
customers. Because it is accessible using a standard browser,
your catalog is likely to be viewed by more individuals in
each of your customers' organizations. Unlike a physical catalog,
an Internetbased catalog can be viewed at the same time by
any number of individuals. It can be viewed by prospect organizations,
in geographic locations that you might not be able to reach
profitably with a physical catalog or a direct sales organization.
Because access to product information is faster and more comprehensive
and the buying process is much easier, the Internet can increase
the likelihood that sales will close—and close faster. Finally,
the Internet will let you better understand your customers'
needs and behaviors.
This can translate into products that better meet their requirements,
messages that are more relevant and timely, customer support
that is more satisfying and, ultimately, into increased purchasing
and revenue.
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What can YOU expect?
Naturally,
both revenue increases and cost savings will vary from company
to company, but they can be quantified. Open Market has developed
an ROI guide that will help you quantify the financial impact
investing in Internet commerce can have on your business and
your bottom line. We will be glad to share it with you.
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Any investment in Internet commerce will pay dividends, but
we believe that five basic components are necessary to have
an Internet commerce solution that will enable you to fully
realize the benefits and achieve the kinds of returns outlined
above.
To start implementing your Internet commerce solution, build
an Internet-based catalog. The software you choose to implement
the catalog should be designed specifically for industrial catalogs
so that it:
• Scales to accommodate many complex products
• Provides the ability to search for products in a number of
ways
• Provides access to in-depth product information and to detailed
technical
specification pages, rules about product interdependencies or
configurations,
pricing, and inventory availability
• Provides basic promotion capabilities to support your marketing
programs At the same time, you will want to implement reporting
and analysis so you can analyze the activity at your catalog
site. Which product categories are most active? Which product
categories are hard to find? Which information is most interesting
to your customer base? Which promotions are working or not working?
Next, layer in customer registration and authentication. You
need to be able to profile your customers, capturing the company
they work for, their position and purchasing authority, and
other characteristics that are relevant to your relationship
with them.
You should also be able to:
• Tailor the security to be simple or complex depending on the
information being accessed
• Personalize the catalog presentation and pricing based on
who is accessing the catalog
• Analyze your customers' behavior by company, role or other
profile information
Commerce-enable your catalog so that customers can simply click
on a "buy me" button and place an order. The order
processing function should be able to:
• Total the order, including both tax and shipping costs
• Accept multiple payment methods, including credit cards and
purchase orders
• Send confirmation of order placement and shipment |
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