Benefits of E-Business:
– Cost reduction – e.g. lower overheads, cheaper procurement
– Increased revenue – e.g. online sales, better CRM
– Better information for control – e.g. monitoring website sales
– Increased visibility
– Enhanced customer service – e.g. via extranets
– Improved marketing – e.g. e-mailing customers with special offers
– Market penetration – e.g. even small suppliers can gain a global presence via the internet
– The combination of the above should be to enhance the company’s competitive advantage
Barriers of E-Business:
Barriers to e-business can be seen in both the organisation itself and in its suppliers and customers. They include:
– Technophobia
– Security concerns
– Set-up costs
– Running costs
– Limited opportunities to exploit e-business
– Limited IT resources in house
– Customers not likely to be interested in e-business.
Electronic invoicing, automated billing and digital payment systems decrease the time workers must devote to these tasks, which many businesses handled manually just a few decades ago.
Electronic communication systems, such as email, video conferencing and online collaboration platforms that incorporate the dynamics of social media, likewise increase productivity by decreasing delays between inquiries and responses.
The e-commerce platform Shopify offers people the ability to create online stores by providing the infrastructure and e-commerce software to sell their own goods.
There are marketing risks when it comes to e-business, as well. All types of businesses rely on effective marketing to drive growth and sales, but online marketing techniques are much different from traditional, offline ones. Without an effective marketing campaign specifically tailored to promote e-business, an organization creates huge financial risk by investing in marketing resources that do not drive consumer traffic to the transaction websites.
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