Internet And E Business Websites example essay topic

"The Evolution Of E-Business " The growth of the Internet in the past 10 years has been phenomenal. Companies large and small have embraced the Internet as a tool that can potentially expand their business beyond the traditional boundaries, which can give them a competitive advantage in the market place. The Internet and E-business websites seemed to many companies in the mid nineties as an elaborate, expensive and unnecessary company brochure. But the rapid evolution of e-business and Internet usage has seen their opinion dramatically change. In fact, companies now realise that they must participate in the e-business revolution to succeed in the modern and complex business environment. In 1996, Forrester Research Institute, a major E-commerce industry analyst, predicted that Business to Customer sales would be a $6.6 billion business in 2000, up from $518 million in 1996.

In 2000 Business to Customer sales in the United States were actually about $18 billion, or 1% of total retail sales. In addition to that it is predicted that total e-commerce transactions in the US is predicted to reach between $3-$7 trillion in 2004 alone. Using the figures as a yardstick it is easy to see how far e-business has come and how much people have embraced it in such a short period of time. It might be fair to say that the BBS Marketing and E-Business degree program which I am currently studying is an indirect product that was created on the back of the E-business revolution. The initial use of the Internet as a business tool was predominantly for marketing purposes, in the form of a public information website. The functions of e-business websites have now become much more complex and elaborate.

Companies now use their websites for product support, customer service and retail sales and as a delivery channel for electronic goods and services. Businesses no longer use it for solely Business -to-Customer (Bto C) purposes. It is now widely used for Business-to-Business (BtoB) transactions also, in fact a Gartner e-commerce research group study, estimates that 14% of business to business transactions are currently made electronically, with that number expected to grow to 50% by 2009. E-commerce applications were first developed in the early 1970's with innovations such as electronic funds transfer (EFT) in which funds could be routed electronically from one organisation to another.

However this technology was limited to mainly large corporations and financial institutions. Then came electronic data interchange (EDI), a technology used to electronically transfer routine, which expanded electronic transfers from financial transactions to other types of transaction processing such as ordering. E-commerce basically came about in stages in the early 90's after the EDI and EFT technology was created. The stages were, The Communication stage, the Information stage and the Distribution stage. The Communication phase (1993-1997) can be defined by the rapid adoption of e-mail. From A OLs carpet bomb approach, getting CDs in the mail, Cd at target, Cds with your washing powder, to Hotmail's viral marketing, this marked a period where e-mail and Internet awareness spread infectiously, changing forever the way that people and businesses communicated.

The next phase in the e-business revolution was the Information phase. This phase involved companies making websites that were specifically for information purposes, ie, what the company was about, and the products it supplied etc. This was know in industry terms as "brochure ware". I had first hand of myself.

In first year in semester 1 we conducted a practical assignment in Internet Authoring". This assignment was to develop an information based website, using dream weaver. Most of the information phase websites were functional but not that aesthetically pleasing. It was only through the involvement of marketing personnel was there much thought put in to the aesthetics of designing a website. Like any good company brochure marketing people wanted websites to be easy on the eye, in a bid to make consumers focus more attentively on it. The information phase also spawned one of the biggest Internet phenomena, that was, the "Search Engine".

Companies like Yahoo and Lycos initiated this marketing beast. The search engine allowed Internet users to find information they were seeking quickly. Some cynics believe it is now a case of that they help you find information that the highest bidding company wants you to find quickly. This is believed as company's can pay the relevant search engine host, money to appear higher up the list. Search engines seem to be an invaluable marketing tool for companies especially if you work it that your name appears top of the list (Inspiration Marketing). The Distribution stage is phase we have already entered.

It is the phase where you can communicate with customers 24 7 365 days a year. The Internet is the only channel that exists that is able to claim that. There are no barriers like closing time or staffing problems to contemplate. You can buy virtually anything over the Internet, e.g. I bought an authentic Japanese Officers world war 2 sword on it, "Don't ask!" the joys of impulse buying! Online Shopping The Electronic Shopping revolution has started and has already had a major impact on the shopping and retail scene. Shopping before the revolution consisted mostly of going physically to retail outlets, and enduring the tiresome stresses of shopping ques, lack of choice, excessive prices, and restricted opening and closing hours.

The most convenient form of shopping was through mail-order catalogues or off satellite shopping channels. Before I started college I had never conducted a transaction on-line, and I was if I remember correctly quite sceptical of doing so. I was under the perception, as a result of hearsay, that it was highly unsafe to buy-online and that credit card fraud was rife. It was only when I heard (in an internet authoring lecture in first year), that statistically you were safer giving your credit card details out on-line than giving them up at a restaurant. That aside I learned that banks now cover any credit card fraud committed to encourage usage, so there is no real personal financial risks involved in buying over the internet now. I now conduct most of my shopping activity on-line.

I have purchased everything from airline tickets to football jerseys, to even watches over the Internet successfully. This year I purchased all my Christmas gifts on-line. The main reason I would personally chose on-line shopping is convenience and price. I was able to buy all my gifts in about 2 hours.

I didn't have the personal stress of dealing with the usual barriers and disincentives of actual shopping like ques, unsuitable opening hours, limited selection, rude service staff, and uncompetitive prices that are synonymous with shopping during the festive season. As well as been beneficial to customers, e-business is also beneficial to companies. A company's potential is practically unlimited with e-business and the Internet as an ally. E- Business has many advantages to a company. These include, reduced overheads, you can have a retail outlet with no costs like public liability insurance, costs of service staff is reduced.

You also are able to sell your products 24 hours a day 365 days a year. As well as that you now have a much larger market spectrum, what was previously a small town market for a small company, has now transformed into having access to people all over the world. The latest statistic is that there are now well over 812 million people on-line around the world. According to a study by Gartner e-commerce research group, 70% of Americas small businesses (defined as those with less than 250 employees) do not have a web presence. For bigger fish, small businesses have the potential of becoming new clients, and through partnerships, also providing access to niche customers.

The possibilities are exciting. EBay, an innovator in this area, has become so successful with its power sellers that it is able to offer health insurance to them. New concepts such as this will multiply in the future As Bill Gates said" The Internet is a tidal wave. It will wash over any industries drowning who don't know how to swim in its waves". It is believed that it wont be too long before 20%-30% of households will be buying electronically, which will mean unlimited potential for bypassing traditional distributors.

One of the biggest problems e-commerce faces, in my opinion, is security, and credit card fraud in particular. We have all heard the horror stories about hackers incept ing credit card details, or false websites that steal people's credit card numbers and max them out. These stories are the biggest turn off of people buying on-line. I was myself cynical at first of giving my credit details on-line.

My confidence however did grow after completing the first few transaction. I have gotten to the stage now where I don't even contemplate credit card fraud. During the first few years of E-commerce, many types of crime came to light, ranging from manipulation of stocks on the Internet to the creation of a virtual bank that disappeared together with the investor's deposits. It Was estimated by Visa that 50% of all credit card fraud takes place on line, despite web transactions only accounting for 2% of credit card business.

The biggest types of fraud are online auction fraud, which accounts of 87% of all incidents of on-line fraud, and Internet stock fraud, which illegally promote stocks to manipulate people into buying them. If e-commerce is to continue to grow in my opinion, a message has to be sent put to consumers that it is safe to shop on-line. The credit card companies have already tried to do this by covering the credit card fraud themselves and not charging the victims of the offence. I think e-business will become a part of everyday life. Last year when I was studying E-business in Copenhagen, I conducted a project based on the "Smart Home". It was based on all the domestic appliances that are now Bluetooth enabled, and have e-commerce functions on them.

One particular product stuck with me, which was the LG Electronics "Smart-Fridge". The capabilities of this product were astounding, it was able to down load recipes off the internet, it had the ability to contact text you when your milk was running low, tell you that a certain item was gone out of date. It also had the function ability to be contacted by a wireless device, to see what was in the fridge. The other appliances available were, the smart microwave, the smart washing machine and the smart security system. All these new domestic appliances indicate to me that e-business is becoming increasing involved in our domestic lives and I suspect it will be an integral part of our future also.

I believe the future of E-commerce is M-commerce. M -Commerce (Mobile Commerce) is basically any e-commerce done in a wireless environment, especially via the Internet. This will enable people to conduct e-business anywhere that was previously inaccessible with the wired e-business. We are now entering the 3rd generation (3 G) of mobile phones, which enables users to faster internet access, the ability to download a variety of multimedia I believe this, as there are over 1.2 billion people using mobile phones at the moment, this indicates a massive market spectrum for M-Commerce, as people can easily access the internet from anywhere. That and the introduction of 3 G capabilities indicate that m-commerce will play a major role in the future of E-business. Conclusion In general the future seems to be bright for E-Commerce.

E-Commerce will become more important as a method of reaching customers providing services and improving operations of organisations. It wont be long in my eyes that e-commerce will be integrated in everyday life, and may at some stage become an absolute necessity in daily life. Three and a half years ago when I commenced my study of BBS Marketing and E-Business, it's fair to say I had quite a superficial knowledge of E-Business and the Internet. I was ignorant of the meticulous technical and financial requirements to setup and maintain a fully functional E-commerce website. I had no first hand experience of purchasing on-line and I didn't know my coaxial cables form my token rings. However I feel I have grasped a rounded knowledge of the subject on both a practical and a theoretical level.

I feel this is vital, especially as a marketing student, as e-business has revolutionized the whole marketing industry and its only after you have learned about it on all levels, can you control it and use it as an ally in the modern, complex and cut throat business world.

Bibliography

Websites web: Author: Cynthia Mackay May 2003 web: Article about e-business, Guy Matthews web Article about E-Business, Text Electronic Commerce 2004: Efr iam Turban, Jae Lee, Dennis Viehland, Prentice Hall Publishers 2004.
Class Notes: Colin Cooney 2004 Most of the information came from myself.