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Uses for e-business

Many aspects of your business could be improved by moving them online. Here are some ways you can use e-business to your advantage.

Intranet and Extranet

An intranet is like your business' own Internet. It can do everything the Internet can do, but it is only available to your employees rather than the world. An intranet will link offices that are in different locations. It can minimize the number of physical meetings, facilitate information sharing, increase the speed of development and consistency of information, and be used to coordinate internal company operations, such as product design, production, inventory control, and shipping.

An extranet is a portion of your intranet that you make available to users outside of your network. An extranet can be used to coordinate with outside partners to automate business operations such as order taking, supply chain management, logistics, billings, and feedback.

Business to Business ↑ top of page

Using the Internet for business to business (B2B) activities holds the greatest potential for many small businesses. There are two distinct aspects to this model that separate it from the more familiar business-to-consumer e-tailing model:

• Flexibility in pricing

  Transactions between businesses often require variability in the pricing of products between purchasers.

• Cooperation of business systems

  Businesses involved in B2B e-commerce allow their internal systems to work together to share information and interactions, resulting in less human intervention. The result is increased productivity and greater savings.

How can small and medium sized enterprises benefit from B2B e-commerce?

• Purchasing indirect supplies

  Many suppliers offer catalogue-based websites for corporate purchases, similar to buying online from a business to customer website, for indirect supplies, such as office furniture, pens, paper, and general office equipment.

• Purchasing direct materials

  Establish a relationship with a vendor that supports e-procurement of direct materials to reduce costs.

• Selling products or services to new vendors

  Join in an e-marketplace to open up new opportunities to sell your products across the globe.

• Leveraging your existing Web presence

  Perhaps you already have a business to customer e-commerce website. Greater sophistication can be added into your online store to target your business clientele.

• Investing in your own e-procurement solution

  Examine your purchasing process, and identify potentials for automating procurement. With a manageable expenditure you could realize a significant return on investment.

Internet Marketing ↑ top of page

Everything you do to promote your business online is Internet marketing. For example, Internet marketing strategies include (but are not limited to) website design and content, search engine optimization, directory submissions, reciprocal linking strategies, online advertising, and email marketing.

Here are some examples of the time and cost-saving benefits of using the Internet to market your products or services:

• The Internet is the widest channel of communication available to small businesses.
• The Internet allows you to collect immediate feedback from your client base with little out-of-pocket expense.
• Internet marketing can be more efficient than print marketing materials and advertising strategies which can be expensive to produce and traditionally have a short shelf life.

Internet marketing tools

No matter what your business, Internet marketing should form part of your marketing mix. How large a part will depend on your particular needs and budget. The tools you use to develop your online presence and drive traffic to your website will also depend on your particular business and target market demographics.

Internet marketing is a fast-changing industry that readily adapts to improvements in technology. There are always new marketing tools available to small businesses. Some of these tools are listed below.

• Website development & search engine optimization

  Designing and building a website is only one aspect of bringing your business online. With billions of websites on the Internet, it's just as important that you ensure people can find your website.

  SEO is about ensuring your website gets noticed and ranked highly by search engines. You want to strive for a top ten ranking. Studies have shown that most search engine users don't scroll past the first page of results.

  Optimization includes:

  • Building a website using search-engine-friendly coding techniques
  • Researching appropriate keywords and keyword phrases that fit the target market
  • Using keyword-rich content in the title tags, headings and overall content
  • Growing quality inbound links to the site

• Online advertising models

  Consider advertising on third-party websites and in search engines using a combination of banner advertisements and text links, for example:

  • Graphical banner advertisements and text-based ads placed on third-party websites that link back to your website
  • Paid advertising in search engines

• Publishing on third-party websites

  Another often overlooked but cost-saving method of marketing your business online is by publishing editorials and articles in third-party e-zines, e-newsletters and on information-based websites. Just as editorials in offline media can help position you as an expert in your field and drive readers to your website, providing articles written (or ghost-written) by you to targeted online media can also drive traffic to your website, often with no out-of-pocket expense. Just remember to include a short biography that outlines what you do and a link to your website at the bottom of each article you publish.

• Permission marketing using email

  Permission-based email marketing can be a low-cost and very effective component of your web marketing strategy. It can help to build a relationship between your business and your target market, and can drive traffic back to your website. Email marketing can consist of direct emails and sales letters to your customer base, personalized auto-responders, and/or email newsletters.

  If you have the budget and don't have the time, you can hire a freelancer or a firm to conceptualize, develop and publish your email messages and newsletters for you. The advantage to email marketing is that you can choose a do-it-yourself option, where you do all of the work, or part of it yourself, thereby saving hundreds, even thousands, of dollars.

• Corporate blogs

  A weblog, or blog, is simply a Web page that acts like an online journal. You can post articles, commentary, images, and links to other websites of interest on it. Blogs can make up a significant part of your overall marketing strategy. All you have to invest in a blog is time. Although business blogs, or b-blogs, carry an inherent marketing focus not found in creative blogs, their casual structure provides the opportunity to connect with readers on a more immediate and personal level than traditional websites and newsletters allow.

  Blogs are generally do-it-yourself solutions. Maintaining one is very easy for just one person to do. Blogs can simplify and speed up the online publishing process, allowing you to disseminate information in the timeliest manner available.

• Affiliate/referral programs

  Affiliate programs, also known as referral programs or partnership programs, involve the use of affiliates to help market a website's products and services in return for a payment for each sale, lead, action, or visitor generated. Amazon.com has created one of the most sophisticated and successful affiliate programs on the Internet, a program that has no doubt contributed to their high level of brand recognition online.

Check out the following resource for more information:

• Marketing FAQs
  
  http://www.the-cma.org/?WCE=C=47|K=225539
  Find clear answers to your questions about marketing techniques and approaches, including direct mail, e-marketing, online retail, customer loyalty and data mining.

Business to Customer ↑ top of page

The global reach of the Internet has enticed many retailers, from home-based businesses to large corporations, to sell their products online.

Electronic storefronts

An electronic storefront refers to a website with many pre-built e-commerce components that a merchant can use to setup an online store. These storefronts give merchants the ability to build an online store using only a Web browser.

Electronic storefronts can be a cost-effective approach for small businesses that are new to e-commerce and unsure about whether they want to pay someone to develop a custom solution. However, there are definite drawbacks to using electronic storefronts.

• You are responsible for creating and maintaining the site yourself, which can be time consuming and involve a steep learning curve.
• The ability to customize the look of your storefront may be limited if you are using a template.
• Basic services may be inexpensive, but optional components may be quite costly.
• You are usually limited to using the payment processing or fulfillment services that come with the storefront, which may not be offered at a competitive price.

As with most aspects of setting up an online store, you should closely examine the costs, benefits, and options associated with the various storefronts packages before making a final decision.

Payment processing

There are three general ways to process payments:

• Manual or offline processing
• Processing through an online third-party payment processor
• Providing real-time credit card processing through to your financial institution

Manual payment processing is the simplest method and usually the least expensive to implement. Many e-commerce providers refer to this method as order capture because the order and payment information is captured online and then processed offline. This method is best when you expect only a small number of orders from your website.

With real-time processing through to your financial institution your website becomes responsible for collecting all payment information which you securely submit behind the scenes to the bank. This type of payment processing is sometimes referred to as Virtual Point of Sale, and is quite similar to having a Point of Sale device in a physical store.

A popular middle ground between these two approaches is to process payments through an online third-party processor. These companies often follow a master merchant model whereby all stores use the processor's credit card merchant account. The payment processor collects customer payment information, processes the transactions, and deposits the payments, less a transaction fee, into your account. Integrating such a service into your website should not be too complex. Most web designers should be able to do it quickly and inexpensively. PayPal is a well-known example of this type of third-party processor.

While this last approach takes much of the payment processing out of your hands, there are some definite drawbacks.

• When a master merchant account is used, buyers will see the name of the processor instead of your business name on their credit card statements, which may cause confusion and lead to increased incidents of chargebacks.
• Transaction fees are often higher than when dealing directly with a bank using your own merchant account.
• Some processors require that the buyer establish an account with their service in order to make a purchase, possibly scaring off or frustrating potential customers.

Human Resources Management ↑ top of page

People looking for jobs do not pound the pavement anymore. They do their research on the company's website and send their résumé after clicking on the "careers" link. Shift workers like to be able to see their schedule online. An employee website keeps your staff informed and lets them send feedback to you. E-business lets you manage your staff better and helps your staff feel more in touch with the business.

Customer Relationship Management ↑ top of page

Who is really buying your product? When do they buy? Is there a trend to your customer's habits? E-business can help you get into the heads of your customers, letting you better cater to their needs. Happy customers mean better business.