E-Business Operations From the Perspective

¶ … E-Business Operations

From the perspective of making online payments, the problems most often encountered by customers and vendors when making e-business payments electronically are related to volume of sales. "Purchasing goods and services over the Internet between businesses is the largest and fastest growing component of the entire e-payment world." (Report 1) Not only will the business-to-customer market sector increase, but the business-to-business (B2B) sector will grow at least twice as fast.

The primary driver in B2B transactions is the back end of electronic bill presentment and payment applications. Not only does the e-business merchant face chargebacks and fraud, but must find the right banker to deal with their charge cards that will guarantee documentation, privacy and discretion, but has the confidence of the consumer. Paypal was one of the first to contain all of these characteristics, and still has a large corner on the market because of its low-risk, low-cost solutions. A government business paper reported that:

The Defense Department had chosen PowerTrack as its standard method to pay transportation companies contracted by the Army, Air Force, National Guard, Defense Logistics Agency and U.S. Transportation Command. These branches of the military make about $1 billion in land, sea and air freight payments a year.... PowerTrack will streamline the freight payment process by automatically paying carriers and electronically billing shippers. It will be used by more than 600 commercial carriers that do business with the Defense Department, including giants such as DHL Airways and Emery Worldwide. (Seitz 1)

From the perspective of customer satisfaction in dealing with an e-business site, the less frustration the better. The customer wants ease of finding the product, of ordering without hitches and glitches in their internet service when trying to pay, security in privacy of information, information as to delivery times, guarantees of satisfaction and fast and safe shipping for their order. If any of these points are not smoothly done, the sale may be lost. The Internet Retailer reports that "Overall customer satisfaction with the e-business industry has improved, but still lags customer satisfaction levels of all industries.... Customers gave e-business a score of 71.4 on a 100-point scale in the latest report." (E-business 1)

From the perspective of supply chain management, many B2B transactions are oriented towards ordering supplies. In the process of doing this a number of predictable problems arise.

The main problem facing business to business transactions online is in the back end of Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment applications. Invoicing, review, approval and payment authorization and instructions take place over the Internet. Settlement is then accomplished through clearing houses, initiating payments of $2.750 trillion in 2006. The anonymity of the Internet and lack of the cardholder being present with a required signature create susceptibility to fraud and having the bank issue a chargeback. Businesses disputing chargebacks find the process discouraging, so paperwork is necessary. Documentation must be obtained, retained and required for every stage of the sale. Human intervention is necessary at times, such as with international orders, P.O. box orders and orders over a certain amount and suspicious orders. Shippers with proof of delivery signatures can be used for safety, and seller fraud protection may be provided by payment processors.