Electronic Business: The Benefits.
In general, a multitude of benefits have been derived from the use of E-Business to facilitate, electronic or online business transactions and exchanges.These include:
- The resulting expansion of local marketplaces into those of national and international consequence.
- The creation of 'virtual communities,'have resulted from the establishment of online markets, and mature into ideal target markets for certain goods and services.
- Increased sales opportunities for businesses, thereby increasing the number of purchasing opportunities available to the consumer.
More directly, the benefits to the consumer include:
- An increased range to choose from, when compared to that presented through traditional methods of business conduct. Such is the direct result of goods and services being offered from across a significantly broader spectrum of retailers and wholesalers.
- In addition the opportunity exists for the consumer to source less expensive goods and services by allowing them to 'shop' in multiple E-businesses at once, thereby allowing them to make a comparitive analysis of costs and quantities as they do so.
- Flexibility results from consumers being able to participate in electronic business transactions at any time, on any single day, 365 days of the year, from close to any location in the world.
- Consumers have the ability to source relevant, up-to-the-minute, detailed product information, within seconds, not hours,days or weeks.
The benefits derived by the business include:
- The opportunity to increase sales, profits and market share, whilst decreasing costs.
- The ability to reach and penetrate various, geographically scattered market segments.
- Effective use of E-Commerce should enable a business to identify the best suppliers, additional customers and the most suitable, potential business partners worldwide. Therefore, by expanding a business's base of consumers and suppliers, allowing the organisation to source cheaper resources and sell higher quantities of goods and/or services.
- Through research of and the decision to implement such potential growth strategies as product customisation, for example as with built-to-order products, a business is provided with an opportunity to gain competitive advantage.
- The Internet, is a highly dynamic medium that allows a business to ensure that it's product information, for example price and quantity guidelines, remain current and up-to-date.
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