E-business concepts and applications

E-Business

The prolific use of computers and the Internet in the Office environment and homes has given rise to a new form of business activity and this is called E-Business. E-business looked at from the point-of-view of it's broadest meaning is the buying and selling online by the use of the Internet, and also includes activities of business like purchasing, tracking of inventory, managing production and handling logistics, customer care, supply chain management and collaborative engineering. Depending on whether the business activity by one business organization is targeted towards another business organization or a consumer the terms B2B and B2C have come into existence. (The Difference between E-business, E-commerce, and E-marketplaces)

B2B stands for business to business and is the trading activity that takes place between companies online and has grown to cover activities of supply chain management as an increasing number of companies outsource constituents of their supply chain to their trading partners. B2C stands for business to consumer and is the trading activity that takes place directly between a company and its consumers over the Internet for their own use and has gradually grown to cover all aspects of customer care and customer satisfaction. Examples of B2B sites include Microsoft.com, Macromedia.com, and crmguru.com. Examples of B2C sites include Amazon.com, ebay.com, Walmart.com, and Borders.com. The difference lies quite clearly in who the customers are. Whether they are other companies or individuals and it is this difference that lays the basis for the differentiation of a B2B site and B2C site in their marketing activities. (The ABCs of B2B)

The significant characteristic of marketing in B2C is in the fact that companies attempt to create a direct relationship with customers without the use of the logistic chain of distributors, wholesaler and retail outlets. In comparison the thrust of marketing in B2B is in the attempt at differentiation of itself from its competition by selling the value intangible of the saving of a great amount of time and money with the maximum possible automation of the supply chain, to its targeted market. This is done by using the traditional offline methods of advertising, tradeshows, field activities and augmented with web sites that give customer only access to their individual accounts and inventories. The difference between the two gets to be clearer when we examine the example of the difference in e-mail marketing. Goals set to be achieved may include a large scope of possibilities, but the final result sought is always to increase revenue and it is here that a significant difference can be seen between B2B and B2C.

The sales cycle involved in a B2B process is normally extended and could run into several months, whereas B2C sales tends to be much quicker. So B2B sites and e-mail campaigns are oriented towards relationship building and lead generation, whereas then orientation in B2C sites and e-mail campaigns is towards the increasing of online sales. B2B e-mail campaigns are created with the purpose of exchanging information and lead generation with sales being the long-term objective. It is quite often seen in B2B the e-mail campaigns is just the first stage in the sales process and more online interaction followed by offline activities make up the other activities down the line. So B2B e-mail campaigns normally are focused at providing high quality information that are targeted at the interests of the customers and this is normally done using a White paper or newsletter.