ebusiness Challenges
ebusinesses operate in a dynamic new market place, one where time and distance between the
"shop front" and the customer are potentially irrelevant, where customers can browse from supplier
to supplier, in the same or even different countries using a few mouse clicks and where ordering and
payment and delivery needs to be handled quickly, easily and securely.
ebusinesses can enjoy massive audiences -but not necessarily markets! The market size will be dictated
by the product/service offered and its relevance to potential consumers. This is an important
consideration for ebusinesses offering innovative products/services or new ways of procuring
existing products - they may be creating new, undefined markets.
The Internet enables successful ebusinesses in sparse markets - niche products that might not be viable
in a single town, county or even country, can become viable through the effects of Internet "Reach".
The Internet has created a "level playing field" for ebusinesses. Traditional barriers to entry
in many markets have been eliminated and new entrants can compete on equal terms with much larger
players - visitor perceptions being the overriding consideration. In many ways new, small ebusinesses
have an advantage over larger established businesses because they have more freedom to innovate and
change in response to market conditions. Several large organisations are responding to these pressures
by establishing their ebusinesses as "arms length" subsidiaries run on more entrepreneurial lines.
ebusinesses must adopt new techniques in areas including;
- Marketing
- Customer satisfaction
- Order fulfillment
Marketing
Marketing an ebusiness presents both problems and opportunities. On the one hand the business may be
operating on a scale that is not covered by traditional marketing channels - for instance across
several countries, but then again, the target market might be specialised and sparse.
Internet Search Engines
Internet Search Engines are still the most popular method of finding products and services
on the Internet. Search Engines provide a free service - they index registered sites by keyword and
enable users to search these indexes using words and phrases to locate relevant sites.
Search Engine registration is essential if you are to be discovered by users around the world.
Registration is generally free but can be time consuming. There are so many search engines that
there are commercial services offered that will submit your registration to multiple Search
Engines and then maintain the registrations with regular renewals.
But note that with Search Engines registration, Quality is more important than Quantity!
For more information click here
Viral marketing
One of the hottest techniques on the Internet is termed "Viral Marketing". As the name implies you
can use certain techniques to spread details of ebusiness via visitors, users and suppliers.
There are several techniques that are acceptable depending largely on the nature
of your site/service. Note that "spamming" or unsolicited junk mailing, is not one of them. This
aggravates users and creates unacceptable loads on the Internet. ISPs co-operate to block and
close-down sites generating spam.
A good basic technique if you are sending information to users is to always include your site
link ideally with some offer or invitation - used to great effect by the free Email services.
When a Hotmail user sends an email to anyone the Hotmail service adds its standard Hotmail tag
to the end of the message - "Get Your Free Hotmail account here.....". This promotes Hotmail on every
message and encourages recipients to register for an account. As soon as they register and start
sending mail they start promoting to a new group of email users. This type of marketing is low cost,
unobtrusive, perceived to have value by many recipients and spreads itself as new users register.
Other techniques include;
- Establish your link on all related sites.
- Incentivise visitors to introduce new users by offering free or discounted products
- Offer services that encourage membership for instance message boards, greetings cards,
competitions etc.
There are now some organisations offering Viral marketing solutions - (non Spam!). For instance
selling a database of 50,000 product and sector journalists who are always happy to receive new
product/technology information that they can reuse in other media forms. ebusinesses can use mass
mailings to such lists to announce new products/technologies and get their messages into traditional
media.
Viral marketing is a very powerful technique and it is an area where new ideas are still being
developed.
Know your customers
A traditional business can get to know its customers through personal interactions - face
to face or other forms of direct communication, and tailor its product and service offerings accordingly.
An ebusiness operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Visitors arrive, use the service and leave
to unknown destinations throughout the day. The more a business knows about these visitors, the better
it can meet their requirements.
ebusiness must use different techniques to get to know their customers.
Requesting registrations can yield useful details such as email address, postal addresses,
product/lifestyle preferences etc. However many users resist simple registration requests unless
they perceive a low risk "pay back".
So, to overcome the most common objections an ebusiness should offer information services such as
"new product details", "special offers", "competitions" etc. Make clear your commitment to maintaining
confidentiality, non-disclosure of email addresses to third parties etc.
Other useful techniques for collecting visitor/customer knowledge include;
- Web based support with Emailed responses
- On-line warranty registration
- Visitor bulletin board
- Small Ads pages
- Greetings Services
- Reminder services
These techniques encourage visitors to register, providing your business with email
addresses and other details. When a visitor returns to one of your information services and
logs in you can identify them, record their activities, tailor outputs based on past
activities etc.
Another common technique used to recognise visitors is the "cookie". A cookie is a small
piece of information that a Web service can send to a Browser to be stored on the visitors
PC. Typically it consists of a visitor number and is identified by the Web service address.
When a visitor accesses a site for the first time the Web service creates a visitor record
and sends a cookie with the visitor number to their Browser. Next time the visitor accesses
the service, the cookie is retrieved and the visitor number used to retrieve the visitor record.
This simple mechanism enables basic visitor tracking but it is not foolproof. Some people
feel concerned that a Web Service can monitor their usage of the service and disable cookies
in the Browser. Any ebusiness needs to use a combination of techniques to make sure they have
a broad coverage of visitor details.
Email Services
If you send regular emails then always add a link back to your site to each one.
If an ebusiness has collected email addresses through using one or more of the tactics discussed
above then it is possible to use these addresses for targeted email promotion.
The golden rules are;
- Make the content valuable/interesting
- Carry direct links to your products/services/offers
- Minimise email sizes - keep them simple
- Limit the number - content not quantity!
- Always offer a simple opt-out link
Adaptive Products
It may be that your existing products do not fit well with the ebusiness model. It may be that they
are too fragile or short lived to be carried to other countries.
Review your products and consider how they might be better packaged for ebusiness markets
and customers. Changes might include smaller packages, heat treated products, local suppliers, language
neutral packaging etc.
Review your Parcel Carrier options, make sure they/you are offering the best value, most appropriate
delivery service for your products/services.
Use the Internet!
The Internet is the greatest source of ideas, information and advice. Use the Internet to research
ideas, to monitor competitors, learn about new marketing techniques etc.
Customer Satisfaction
Knowing your customers (see above) enables an ebusiness to track usage and evaluate effectiveness of
offers, site changes etc. However customer satisfaction is a complete product life cycle issue and must
take account of the ordering, fulfillment, delivery and product acceptability. Remember that in
many cases the first time the customer can "feel" the product is when it is finally delivered. Until then
their perceptions have been based on your product descriptions and images.
A common technique is to select visitors on a random basis for customer satisfaction survey. However
visitors often consider such questions a waste of their time and refuse to complete them. The usual method
of overcoming such resistance is to offer an incentive - free draw etc. If the feedback can be switched to
email it can provide another address capture opportunity.
An alternative method might be to ship products with a warranty registration card (pre addressed and
post paid) and add a few satisfaction questions - and a request for email address!
A feedback facility within a Web service is a useful method for collecting visitor information, comments
and suggestions. The feedback feature could use Email but most users prefer a Web based form that can be
completed and sent anonymously if required.
In addition to collecting your users' views you should make sure that all communications are answered
promptly by a business representative - not the Web Master!
A final thought - play the customer role on any competitor sites and check out their user experience.
Are they doing things better than your own service? If so look at adopting and enhancing.
Order fulfilment
A lot of thinking usually goes into the front-end of an ebusiness - site design, naming, services, and
promotion. However the customer experience is very much concerned with the order fulfilment process.
Can the customer select your products accurately, construct a valid, priced order easily and quickly and
then place the order and make payment securely?
These ordering activities are controlled by the visitor and may take palce at any time of day. The
result is a pre-paid order that the customer has specified that needs to be processed quickly and accurately.
It is essential that customer generated orders are 100% accurate in terms of products, prices, delivery
and tax charges so as to avoid any unnecessary delays.
Orders need to be managed through the system, products despatched and accounts updated. Obviously these
activities must integrate with existing inventory control systems, manufacturing and supply processes.
Often these older systems are not responsive enough for an ebusiness.
Many organisations are recognising the limitations of their order fulfilment processes and are
adopting Web technology within their organisations and through to their own suppliers.
Instead of orders arriving from the Web Service having to be retyped into an Order Processing system,
the web service can be linked directly into the Order Processing System, posting orders around the
clock.
Inventory control can be linked via Email to suppliers and online payments used between the business
and its suppliers. Exploitation of Internet technologies is reshaping organisations as they automate
business processes, integrating their suppliers.
An ebusiness solution often acts as a catalyst, encouraging business reengineering, yielding major benefits in many areas of the business.