Benefits of E-Commerce to Businesses

1.It helps to reach Global:
E-Commerce enabled business now have access to people all around the world. In effect all E-Commerce businesses have become virtual multinational corporations. E-Commerce expands the market place to national and international markets. Internal and web based E-Commerce helps to reach a more geographically dispersed customer base and more business partners as compared to the traditional business methods.
2. Cost effective:
E-Commerce is proved to be highly cost effective for business concerns as it cuts down the cost of marketing, processing, inventory management, customer care etc. It also reduces the burden of infrastructure required for conducting business. It can also collect and manage the information related to the customers efficiently which in turn will assist the consumer in developing efficient promotional strategy. New Customers with Search Engine Visibility: Physical retail is driven by branding and relationships. In addition to these two drivers, online retail is also driven by traffic from search engines. It is not unusual for customers to follow a link in search engine results and land up on an ecommerce website that they have never heard of. This additional source of traffic can be the tipping point for some ecommerce businesses.
3.It Reduces the Paper Costs:
E-Commerce decreases the cost of creating, processing, distributing, storing and retrieving information through the use of FDI systems. This greatly cuts on the cost of paper work in terms of the time taken and the man power required. Also the date is more secure from theft and destruction.
4.Reduction in Inventories:
A reduction in inventory is desirable to enable reduction in storage, handling, insurance and administrative costs. Internet E-Commerce can helps firms to reduce inventories by electronically linking the suppliers and buyers. The process starts from the customer orders and uses just-in-time manufacturing. Information on inventory levels and production rate is shared between manufacturers and their suppliers. Using such information, the delivery schedules are “fine turned” for just in time manufacturing, rather than maintaining large inventories.

5.Mass Customization and Competitive advantage:
The web based interactive Ecommerce enables the customization of products/services as per the customer needs. This provides a great competitive advantage to businesses. For example, an online travel agency may customize the literary for a customer who wishes to travel abroad or a computer manufacturer may be able to supply to customized PC to a user.

6.No Middlemen:
There is a direct contract with customers in E-Commerce through internet without any intermediation. Companies can now focus more on specific customers by adapting different one-to-one marketing strategy.
7.Reduced Production lead Time:
The production cycle time is the time taken by a business to build a product, beginning with the design phase and ending with the completed product. The internet based E-Commerce enables the reduction of this cycle time by allowing the production teams to electronically share design specifications and refinement processes. The reduction in the production cycle time helps to reduce the fixed overheads associated with each unit produced. This saving in the cost production can be passed onto the customer or may be used to achieve higher profits.
8. Improved Customer relationship:
Customer service can be enhanced using the internet based E-Commerce by helping the customer to access information before, during and after a sale. Customers may need to retrieve information on product specifications and pricing. On the status of an order or may need online help in the installation or use of a product he has purchased. A prompt customer support service can help businesses to earn goodwill of customers in the long run.
9.Lower Sale and Marketing Costs:
The internet allows businesses to reach many customers globally at lower costs. Thus by shifting the sale and marketing functions to the electronic processes, the organizations can bring down greatly the marketing overheads. For example, advertisements on the internet can cut down the cost of printing and mailing the pamphlets or brochure. Any charge in product specifications in the case of paper- based advertisements may mean re-printing, how-ever in web based advertisement it may mean changes only in the web site.
10.Lower Telecommunication Costs:
The Internet is much cheaper than value added networks (VANs) which were based on leasing telephone lines for the sole use of the organization and its authorized partners. It is also cheaper to send a fax or e-mail via the Internet than direct dialing before the coming internet, only few organizations were using the private networks and VANs for their EDI. The cost of installation and running these systems was very high and beneficial only to the larger firms and enough business volumes to justify the cost.
11.New Found Business Partners:
Internet based E-Commerce enables businesses to find new business partners globally on the web, thus not restricting themselves to a specific choice of suppliers. Increased supply chain efficiencies: E-Commerce minimizes supply chain inefficiencies, reduces inventories, and reduces delivery delays.
12. Digitization of Products and Processes:
Particularly in the case of software and music/video products, this can be downloaded or e-mailed directly to customers via the Internet in digital or electronic format. The internet helps to expedite access to remote information, thus adding speed to transactions and processes.
13.Information sharing:
It takes only few seconds to share information over the internet. A firm can e-mail its customers relating new products and new offers and can solve their product related quires and welcome suggestions.

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Titany answered the question on September 23, 2021 at 06:17