Business Use of the Internet

Business use of the internet has expanded from an electronic information exchange to a broad platform for strategic business applications.

Notice how applications like collaboration among business partners, providing customer and vendor support, and electronic commerce have become major business uses of the internet.

Other studies of leading corporations and organizations show that they are also using Internet technologies for marketing, sales, and customer relationship management applications.

However, these studies also show that the strong growth of cross functional business applications and the emergence of applications in engineering, manufacturing, human resource, and accounting. Companies are using the Internet for business in a variety of ways, including enterprise communications and collaborations, electronic commerce, and strategic business alliance.

At General Electric Co. for example customers and designers can use intranets, extranets, the internet, and project collaborations technology to help construct a power plant from the ground up to the web.

General Electric and customer engineers can now hold virtual meeting in which blueprints can be exchanged and manipulated in real time. Then customers can use the web to watch from anywhere in the world as a turbine is built and moves down the production lines, ordering at last minute changes as needed.

While General Electric’s new system should give the company a 20% and 30% reduction in the time it takes to built a turbine and could improve the annual output of each turbine by 1% to 2%. This is one of competitive advantage.
Business Use of the Internet

Targeting the Best Shoppers

E-commerce ventures, like retail stores, will sell their merchandise to three types of customers: the customers who know what they want and go get it, the customers who want to buy something but are undecided, and the potential customers who merely browse the web.

The more directed the shopper, the easier the sale – as long as that shopper can quickly and easily find the product online, get all information on the product and then complete the purchase.
Therefore, web sites should concentrate on the shopper who came for a product and wants to quickly and easily purchase that product.

The well known Amazon.com has a small search box that allows its customers to search for any product by title, author, artist or other applicable data, then quickly lists all available version, prices and the average shipping time of that product on the screen.

One click shopping allows past customers to purchase the book or books without reentering credit card information.

The direct shopper can access, buy, and leave the site with minimum effort.

However, sites that ignore the less directed, undecided buyers will miss a good deal of clientele. If your site and product attract these types of buyers, you must prepare to develop a storefront that help them easily and quickly browse products by brand, agent, manufacturer, category, price and any other appropriate criteria.

These shoppers will buy when they find a product they like so they should be exposed to as many products as possible.

At the online clothing outlet Bluefly.com, customers can enter their email address and then enter a size or a range of size for many different types of clothing, shoes and accessories.

Customers can chose what types of merchandise interest them and what designers and styles they prefer.

From then on, they will be presented with their own personalized catalog of merchandise every time they log on.

The least directed , browsing shoppers are the most difficult to convert into buyers. Personalized searches, specialty shops, hot product lists ,and online promotions help attract these shoppers, who often will be drawn to a web site’s “glitter,” or its look and feel, rather than its content, service or products.

Sophisticated marketing campaigns and online tools such as generalized, all product queries; chat room and discussion groups; and other promotions can help turn these browsers into buyers but a web site should not count on these shoppers to succeed.

Targeting a strong and directed base of customers is essential.
Targeting the Best Shoppers

Know Your Customers

Know Your Customers

You should know your customers, you then will know what types of customers are available and willing to buy online and you can identify your best prospects.

Then you must learn how these best prospects are accessing your site, how they shop and what they want online.

Only then can you develop marketing and branding strategies and begin to build your sit appropriately.

In order to begin E-commerce successfully, these twelve steps should be followed:

• Know who comprises the bulk of Web users.


• Learn how children will figure into the Web’s future.


• Track how teens spend disposable income online.


• Watch the heavy hitter – baby boomers and senior users.


• Know what income brackets dominate the Web.


• Know what races and nationalities are Web users and in what proportions.


• Note how gender contributes to online use and sale patterns.


• Know how much customers in different income brackets are willing to spend online.


• Know what nationalities and countries are doing business globally online.


• Research the computer and Web access technology most of your customers will use to access your site.


• Know what types of shoppers will access your site and how to attract them.


• Know what these shoppers are looking for online, and give it to them.

Know Your Customers

The Customer is Always Right

Merchants who implemented this saying may take a few losses with untruthful customers, but their reward from good customer is immeasurable loyalty and confidence that customers will enjoy – or at least approve of – every shopping experience they have with merchant.

Ensuring that customer feels “always right” begins with the before mentioned prompt reply to e-mails, even if they are substantial complaints that must be evaluated within the company.

Answer all the complaints - within twenty four hours is, again, a good rule of thumb. Have someone designated to answer complaints or to route them to the appropriate person for maximum efficiency in replying.

If the complaint is serious and a offer of resolution will take time to develop, then send e-mail notifying the complainant that their complaint has been heard, a proposed solution is forthcoming and give them some time line for receiving the expected reply.

Along these lines, sometimes twenty four hours will seem too long to wait for an answer to a complaint. List your company’s customer service phone number on your web site for those customers’ that feels more like crises.

If no one will be available after hours to listen to a complaint, provide voice-mail access, and ensure a reply within one business day. Sometimes allowing customers or clients to vent their frustration when they need to, is enough to win their trust and respect and to keep them coming back.

The Customer is Always Right

Targeting the Best Shoppers

E-commerce ventures, just like retail stores, will sell their merchandise to three types of customers: the customers who know what they want and go get it, the customers who want to buy something but are undecided, and the potential customers who merely browse the Web.

The more directed the shopper, the easier the sale – as long as that shopper can quickly and easily find the product online, get all the information on the product and then complete the purchase. Therefore, websites should concentrate on the shopper who came for a product and wants to quickly and easily purchase that product.

The well known Amazon.com has a small search box that allows its customers to search for any product by title, author, artist, or other applicable data, the quickly lists all available versions, prices and the average shipping time of that product on the screen. One click shopping allows past customers to purchase the book or books without reentering credit card information. The directed shopper can access, buy, and leave the site with minimum effort.

However, sites that ignore the less directed, undecided buyers will miss a good deal of clientele. If site and products attract these types of buyers, it must be prepared to develop a storefront that help them easily and quickly browse products by brand, age, manufacturer, category, price and any other appropriate criteria. These shoppers will buy when they find a product they like, so they should be exposed to as many products as possible.

The least directed, browsing shoppers are the most difficult to convert into buyers. Personalized searches, specialty shops, hot products lists, and online promotions help attract these shoppers, who often will be drawn to a website’s “glitter’” or its look and feel, rather than its content, service, or products.

Sophisticated marketing campaigns and online tools such as generalized, all product queries; chat room and discussion groups; and other promotions can help turn these browsers into buyers, but a website should not count on these shoppers to succeed. Targeting a strong and directed base of customers is essential.
Targeting the Best Shoppers