Purchasing office supplies

Buying products and services that are required to run an office, shop, farm or business is part of day-to-day business life. Much of what businesses require in the way of office supplies requires little thinking or shopping around. However, when the purchasing decision requires researching, such as buying a new office desk, or when there is a reason to check whether a long-term supplier is still offering the best deal, the Internet can be a great time-saver and often a cost-saver.

Using search engines, local business directory websites and the Yellow Pages online, enables quick and easy research into the various suppliers and options. Referring to a supplier's website should reveal their models or product lines, plus the quality, price or fee, delivery costs, availability, payment terms, guarantees and after-sales service they offer.

A growing number of suppliers have their catalogues online and provide the means of ordering and paying online. There are many advantages to this, including the convenience and cost-efficiency of being able to order whenever you wish, in or out of traditional office hours. It is also cheaper to pay online than writing a cheque.

What to do

• Develop policies in your e-business plan for reviewing at regular intervals via the Internet the pricing, quality, convenience etc of current suppliers.
• Develop policies in your e-business plan for giving preference to office suppliers that provide online ordering and payment facilities.

Business can purchase products and services from other businesses by using the Internet. Two companies, one the supplier and the other the purchaser, can transmit inquiries, orders, invoices, payments etc. directly via the Internet. In this way the purchaser can:

• manage supplier relationships and accounts more easily as they are more automated
• save time writing out and tracking orders
• manage cash-flow more easily.

The supplier benefits by being able to respond more rapidly to orders and can manage cash-flow more easily.

Procurement using the Internet is referred to as e-procurement.

What to do

Research the advantages and challenges of adopting e-procurement by enquiring from your industry association and by researching on the Internet. The following documents provide a good starting point for your research.

Marketing and promotion

Marketing is making products and services available to buyers in a planned way which encourages people to buy more of them. Marketing usually involves establishing an image for a business (eg a logo) and promoting the business through advertising and any other means that makes consumers aware of the company and keen to buy its products and services.

Since the mid-1990s the Internet has become an important tool for marketing and promoting companies. This is because so many Australians now shop around for products and services on the Internet and increasingly order and buy products and services on the Internet. In fact, at September 2002, 18% of people aged 16 or over who used the Internet had purchased goods or services online in the previous six months. Not only is this an important marketing tool but It can also be a relatively cheap one for any business.

What to do

Look at your current marketing plan, or if you don't have one, list the ways in which you currently market and promote your business, and then consider where and how the Internet might help. The possible areas where a website, and the use of email, could add value include:

• establishing and reinforcing the company's image and name
• securing new markets and new customers
• helping to keep existing customers by providing them with additional help and information via the website and emails
• meeting many of your customer's expectations that they can research, order, book or buy online whenever it suits them
• creating more opportunities for promoting the business
• saving time and money when doing traditional promotional activities - eg emailing a newsletter is much cheaper than mailing it by post
• monitoring customer behaviour to see what they buy and what their preferences are.

Exporting

The Internet is a great tool for getting your products, services or message out to the rest of the world.

The Web connects your sales counter or reception desk to the whole world. Just consider: anyone with Internet access, anywhere in the world and at any time of the day or night, can access your website to read about your products and services, enquire about them and maybe order and pay for them. Distributors and agents who might be looking around the world for appropriate products to add to their catalogues, or businesses looking for strategic partners in other parts of the world, might also find you if you have a presence on the Web.

You can use the Internet to do the same thing - look for customers, distributors, business advisors and strategic partners anywhere in the world.

The Australian Trade Commission, or Austrade, is the Australian Government's main export and international business facilitation agency. Austrade helps Australian companies reduce time, cost and risk involved in selecting, entering and developing international markets. Austrade has a great deal of information on their website about using the Internet as a means of promoting a business overseas. They suggest that a website is good for conducting business overseas because it allows you to:

• make contact with potential overseas customers without leaving home
• reach overseas customers in cost-effective ways
• project the impression of a professional organisation of substance
• convey that your business is 'modern' and uses new technology
• avoid problems with time differences by having 24-hour contact
• introduce and promote new products
• demonstrate products using technical data, drawings
• sell products direct to customers.

What to do

Access the these areas of Austrade's website because they are of particular importance to planning how you might be able to use the Web to help you export.

• Undertake one of Austrade's e-business online courses - The free online courses explain how to use email, electronic marketplaces, portals and online collaboration tools effectively in order to maximise export potential. They are designed for businesses that already export or who are planning to do so. Click here to read more about the courses and to register.
• Online Export capability tool - If you are thinking about doing business overseas for the first time, but are unsure whether your organisation has the "capability" to do so, try this survey to see if you have the capability: http://www.austrade.gov.au/australia/layout/0,,0_S2-1_2zh-2_-3_PWB17549390-4_-5_-6_-7_,00.html
• Read the Latest research conducted by Austrade and the University of New South Wales about the impact of e-commerce on export business. The report provides a wealth of information on the latest developments in e-commerce for export business based on the experiences of the 340 Australian exporters surveyed: http://www.austrade.gov.au/ecommercereport
• Have a look at how other Australian companies are using the Internet as a tool for exporting by exploring Austrade's suppliers database. It currently lists 8,500 Australian companies. Find companies in your industry sector and see what they are offering. http://www.austrade.gov.au/australia/layout/0,,0_S2-1_CLNTXID0030-2_-3_-4_-5_-6_-7_,00.html

Distribution and logistics

Delivering products to distributors or customers when and how they expect and managing the logistics of the delivery is a vital part of many businesses. A website can be used by the sender (the owner of the website) and the receiver (the customer) to:

• track the whereabouts of a parcel and make the information available to customers - eg FedEx
• record and report on shipping and account details
• keep records of stock and inventory and then control what customers are able to buy as well as manage their expectation of delivery time and date
• automatically send re-stocking orders to suppliers when inventory reaches a pre-determined minimum level
• promote the sale of premium delivery services and insurance deals
• store and distribute, via the Internet, products or services such as documents, games, tickets and information.

What to do

To determine the most effective and cost-efficient way to use the Internet to manage the distribution of products and services, and the logistics of stock and inventory control, undertake the following:

For products and services that can be ordered but not delivered over the Internet consider the following.

• Ask your customers if they want more information about availability of products and services, delivery times and method of delivery - eg an email telling them that the product they have purchased has been despatched and confirming the time and place of delivery.
• Determine if the updating procedure need only be a simple exercise or whether it requires a sophisticated solution. A simple solution would be one whereby at a given time (eg every Friday) one staff member accessed the website and updated the product details. This would typically apply where there are few products, their price does not change often and availability is not a problem.
  
  At the other end of the scale is an automated system, suitable for businesses that have hundreds of product items and where prices and availability are variable. For businesses where this is the case, it may prove cost-effective to move the whole stock and inventory system online, whereby staff, distributors, suppliers and customers all interact with the one inventory and stock control system that resides in the website (ie there is no stock and inventory system on a hard disk in the office, it is all on the website). This complete solution is particularly appropriate for businesses where having one database of products online and one offline would be inefficient and where the sheer size of the product listing makes updating the website time-consuming, difficult to coordinate and where quality control would be at risk.
• Investigate with your staff, distributors and suppliers if there is a cost-benefit in using the Internet to gain more information about, and control over, customer orders, stock levels, and availability - eg would the likely cost of incorporating distribution and logistic controls into a website be justified in terms of such things as improving customer relationships and minimising lost sales due to being out of stock.
  

CRM

Customer relationship management (CRM) is important to most businesses and many are using the Internet as a tool to help with CRM. A website can be established such that whenever a customer accesses it or sends an email to the business via the website, software tracks and records the user's pathway through the site, records what pages they looked at, what information they downloaded and the topic of any email they might have sent - eg requesting further information or booking a ticket. Sales staff and others can also access the same website, usually through a password-restricted section, and record daily activity with customers and clients. All this information can be stored in a central database and cross-referenced so that reports can be generated at any time providing information such as customer lists, their individual preferences, the last time there was communication between you and them and what it was about (eg an order, enquiry).

This information-gathering and reporting capacity can be used to personalise communication with customers, and enable you to alert them to subscription renewals, promote specials or inform them of new services and products, all in a timely and relevant way. On the other hand, using the Internet to manage relationships with customers and clients can be as simple as keeping a list of email addresses and noting in your diary when you next need to email out a newsletter.

Some people are concerned that using the Internet to manage relationships with customers will take away the personal touch which is so important for most businesses. But using the Internet for CRM helps automate the process of managing your dealings with customers, freeing up time to spend with them face-to-face and on the telephone. In fact, using your website as a CRM tool can improve the personal touch with your customers.

What to do

To determine the most effective and cost-efficient way to use the Internet to manage your relationship with customers and clients, undertake the following:

• identify who in your business is involved directly with customers
• brain-storm with the team what customer relationships need managing and what the benefits would be of improving them
• research what your customers' preferences are - eg ask your customers if they would like to receive email alerts
• research the ways in which the Internet can assist with customer relationship management and what off-the-shelf solutions are available or, if you have a web developer, what they can offer
• identify the average technical capacity customers have for using email, and websites - eg the speed of their computer and connection to the Internet
• identify how experienced on average your target audience is using the Internet and whether they are likely to use your website or email to do business with you
• do a cost/benefit analysis on the preferred customer relations management solution - ie determine the value of the expected benefits of improving customer relationships, determine the various costs of the solution required to meet those expectations, then assess whether the value of the benefits outweighs the costs.

communication

The Internet is a great tool for communicating with customers, clients, suppliers, distributors, staff, stakeholders and government agencies. Communication is a two-­way exercise and the Internet provides many opportunities not just for two-way dialogue but even dialogue between multiple parties, all at the same time. The various ways you might use the Internet to help communicate include:

• receiving orders and ordering supplies
• receiving requests for information and providing information via email or your website
• e-newsletters - sending out a newsletter by email, either in the body of the email or attached to it as a document the user can print out
• email alerts - get users' permission to send them emails reminding them of pending subscription or licence renewals or informing them of special deals
• inviting users of the website to contact you or join a discussion group on your website
• Internet conferencing - you can conduct online video-conferences with staff or clients using Internet technology
• Internet phone - use your Internet connection as your telephone line - there is an interesting article at http://www.crt.net.au/etopics/voip.htm which addresses this topic.

What to do

To determine the most effective and cost-efficient Internet communication tool undertake the following:

• identify your target audience - the most important people you want to communicate with
• research their preference for the means of communicating - eg ask your customers if they would like to receive email alerts and if they would like to be able to lodge orders via email
• identify the average technical capacity they have for using email, websites, Internet conferencing etc - eg the speed of their computer and connection to the Internet
• identify your target audience's average level of Internet experience
• do a simple cost/benefit analysis on the preferred means of communication to assess whether it is viable for your business - eg compare the costs of posting out promotional newsletters with the cost of using email, and assess the relative benefits.

Banking

Almost all banks and financial institutions offer access to some of their services via the Internet. Once you have a user name and PIN (personal identification number), you can do banking from anywhere, any time of the day or night. Internet banking is using the bank's Internet site to do your banking. Note: don't confuse Internet banking with e-commerce, which is about selling products and services via your own website or email.

The possible ways in which you might use the Internet for banking include:

• paying bills
• paying wages
• transferring money between your accounts
• obtaining account balances
• researching interest rates and special products available to you.

The possible benefits for businesses include:

• saving time physically going to a bank and standing in a queue
• doing banking out of hours, and from wherever is convenient to you - as long as you have a computer connected to the Internet you can do Internet banking
• obtaining information, such as account balances, instantly when you want it
• managing your various accounts more easily
• managing the payment of invoices more easily.

What to do

Contact your bank, or look on the Internet for their website, and find out:

• what Internet banking facilities they offer
• what their claims are about the benefits it will have for your business
• what you need to do to use them - eg what computer equipment and software are required
• what help is available in using the system
• if there are any charges and what they are
• what their security measures are.

Putting your catalogue online

Many businesses offer a range of products or services, often with various options and models. Typically, these have been presented in a printed brochure or catalogue. The Internet provides advantages over the printed brochure by making a catalogue available to everyone, any time of the day or night, anywhere in the world.

If you would like to get straight into detailed information on e-catalogues, download the following publication released in May 2004. PDF From Paper to Procurement - effective catalogue creation and management for buyers and suppliers (574 kb).

This guide has just been produced by the Australian Government (Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) in conjunction with relevant associations, agencies and companies that specialise in the area of e-procurement and e-catalogues. It was funded through the Australian Government's Information Technology Online (ITOL) grants program. The guide is designed to help Australian suppliers publish and maintain electronic catalogue data in a format suitable for selling and buying online (ie e-procurement).

For a general introduction to e-catalogues explore the sections below.

* what is an e-catalogue?
* e-catalogues versus printed catalogues
* setting up an e-catalogue
* is an e-catalogue right for you?
* the challenges

About e-catalogues

An e-catalogue is an online presentation of information on products and services that are offered and sold by an organisation. For organisations that do not have a large range of products or services, putting its catalogue on the Internet is not a difficult task. However, for those with large product lines and many service offerings, multiple buyers, complex supply-chains and logistics, converting to an e-catalogue system is a complex task and requires careful planning and implementation.

One option for using these catalogues is to place them on an electronic marketplace for the purpose of conducting business over the Internet. Electronic marketplaces (or e-marketplaces) are described in the next section.
E-catalogues versus hard-copy catalogues

An e-catalogue has many advantages over a traditional hard-copy catalogue:

* it can be updated more efficiently and cheaply as the publishing process is faster and there are no printing and paper costs
* price changes and availability can be updated immediately a new product or service becomes available or there is a supply issue with a product or service
* it is available to customers anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week
* coupled with an online payment system, it encourages sales and assists cash-flow
* through the use of cross-links and product-to-product association the website can automatically encourage users to purchase additional products (cross-selling) and more of a product or service (up-selling)
* it can improve access to product catalogues by standardising content and providing multiple search criteria so that users can find it easily
* it can provide images and diagrams to demonstrate product features.

There are disadvantages of using an e-catalogue over a traditional hard-copy catalogue:

* if the business has a large range of products or services that change price or availability often, then an e-catalogue requires a sophisticated website solution which can be costly to establish and maintain
* to reap the full benefits of having an e-catalogue, a business would need to coordinate its customer and product databases, stock and inventory systems and financial systems and then ensure that these systems, or at least the website, could talk to the relevant systems of its suppliers and distributors - this is no mean feat.

Copyright

Copyright owners enjoy certain exclusive rights in relation to their creations. Your website will have copyright content on it and you should take measures to protect your rights by:

• obtaining an assignment or licence of the copyright in the material created by your website designers so you can control future website designs and amendments
• obtaining assignments of copyright or licences from third party consultants to use copyright material that they have created
• displaying the copyright symbol (c), the name of the author, year of publication and terms of use, particularly on pages where users are able to download or copy material from your website
• setting out in your general terms and conditions a statement that users of the website must obtain permission before copying, downloading or altering material from your website
• ensuring that access to material that is not for general public use, is only available to password holders or only after payment of a fee and acceptance of specific terms and conditions.

Your website might also contain or use third party copyright material which you do not own. You should take measures to protect yourself from infringing third party copyright rights by:

• making sure you obtain licences to use and reproduce the copyright material before you place the material on your website
• complying with any terms of use attached to the material
• ensuring that if you link your website to third party websites, you only do so in accordance with their terms and conditions.

You should also protect yourself from liability if those using your website infringe someone else's copyright (ie when posting material to your website) by:

• stating in your terms and conditions that you maintain authority to use and remove any material as you see fit without obtaining permission, that you are not responsible for the content of any posted material, and that under no circumstances are you authorising an infringement of copyright
• requiring parties posting to your website to indemnify you for any loss arising from copyright infringement
• ensuring that any infringing material is removed as soon as it is identified
• providing statements limiting your liability, where applicable.

Distribution and logistics

Delivering products to distributors or customers when and how they expect and managing the logistics of the delivery is a vital part of many businesses. A website can be used by the sender (the owner of the website) and the receiver (the customer) to:

• track the whereabouts of a parcel and make the information available to customers - eg FedEx
• record and report on shipping and account details
• keep records of stock and inventory and then control what customers are able to buy as well as manage their expectation of delivery time and date
• automatically send re-stocking orders to suppliers when inventory reaches a pre-determined minimum level
• promote the sale of premium delivery services and insurance deals
• store and distribute, via the Internet, products or services such as documents, games, tickets and information.

What to do

To determine the most effective and cost-efficient way to use the Internet to manage the distribution of products and services, and the logistics of stock and inventory control, undertake the following:

For products and services that can be ordered but not delivered over the Internet consider the following.

• Ask your customers if they want more information about availability of products and services, delivery times and method of delivery - eg an email telling them that the product they have purchased has been despatched and confirming the time and place of delivery.
• Determine if the updating procedure need only be a simple exercise or whether it requires a sophisticated solution. A simple solution would be one whereby at a given time (eg every Friday) one staff member accessed the website and updated the product details. This would typically apply where there are few products, their price does not change often and availability is not a problem.
  
  At the other end of the scale is an automated system, suitable for businesses that have hundreds of product items and where prices and availability are variable. For businesses where this is the case, it may prove cost-effective to move the whole stock and inventory system online, whereby staff, distributors, suppliers and customers all interact with the one inventory and stock control system that resides in the website (ie there is no stock and inventory system on a hard disk in the office, it is all on the website). This complete solution is particularly appropriate for businesses where having one database of products online and one offline would be inefficient and where the sheer size of the product listing makes updating the website time-consuming, difficult to coordinate and where quality control would be at risk.
• Investigate with your staff, distributors and suppliers if there is a cost-benefit in using the Internet to gain more information about, and control over, customer orders, stock levels, and availability - eg would the likely cost of incorporating distribution and logistic controls into a website be justified in terms of such things as improving customer relationships and minimising lost sales due to being out of stock.
  

selling

selling on your website

The term e-commerce refers to buying, selling or ordering goods and services on the Internet. It is a sub-set of e-business.

So e-commerce happens when any commercial transaction is facilitated by the Web or email. The transaction may simply involve a customer ordering an item from your online shop and paying for it by cheque when it is delivered. The more sophisticated e-commerce systems allow users to pay immediately via credit card for items puchased online.

Websites or email can be used to allow customers or clients to order, purchase or pay for things such as:

• products and services
• information in the form of papers, images, video or audio clips - perhaps held in a database on the site
• membership subscriptions
• rates, licences and taxes
• subscription to specialist services, newsletters etc for which you normally charge
• specifically requested research conducted by the organisation's staff
• bookings and tickets
• venue/facilities bookings.

E-commerce does not have to be an expensive or sophisticated function or process. It is simply a tool that makes it easier for customers and suppliers to do business with you, and you with them.

What to do

If your e-business plan involves selling products or services online (via your website or email, or both) then you need to consider a range of issues before the website is built.

The following section assumes that you want to provide the e-commerce solution via your own website or email system. An alternative to doing it yourself is to join an e-marketplace where someone else puts your catalogue online and handles the e-commerce solution for you. If you want to explore that alternative, look at the e-marketplace section of this website - just click on the link.

Assuming your plan is to include e-commerce on your website, it is important to resolve a number of issues before going online because the approach you adopt for each will affect the way the web developer builds the site, what e-commerce software is employed and it will help to ensure that the solution is right for you and your customers.

Consider each of the following issues:

What products and services are to be sold online? Not all products or services are suited to being sold online. For example, CDs and books sell very well online but it is more difficult to sell life insurance over the Internet. Perhaps only a selection of your products or services should be offered for sale online.

Are there any business partners to consider? Before making these products or services available online, consider that once online, anyone, anywhere can see and purchase them. Is this an issue for you and your business partners? For example, do you have re-sellers or fellow franchisees who would regard your e-commerce activity as treading on their territory or even taking business away from them?

What price to charge and what pricing model? Should the pricing/fees be the same as that charged to face-to-face customers? You may want to offer a discount for purchasing online to encourage people to purchase online. Determine how much to charge for freight and handling for the various quantities that can be purchased online.

How to present your products and services? What will be the means by which users see and select products and services? Will you provide images, video clips, animations or samples of your products or services? If there is a range of products and options, how will these be presented? How will the prices/fees be displayed? How do you want users to be able to make selections and edit their choices should they decide before paying that they want to change their selection - referred to as a shopping cart solution?

How are the products or services to be delivered? Directly online, by post, courier, or collected in peson by the purchaser.

Payment method and timing: Do you want to be paid by credit card, cheque, money-order, cash? When is it best to receive payment, given the type of product or service being purchased online? Instantly, at the point of sale, or is it sufficient to take an order via the website or email and invoice the customer at the point of delivery or at the end of the month?

Security and reliability: What level of security of your e-commerce solution is required or appropriate? How dependent will your business be on the security and reliability of the system? eg if a significant amount of your turnover is to be put through the website then it needs to be secure and very reliable.

Fulfilment: What is the availability of the goods and services for sale? If you require instantaneous payment but then cannot supply the goods, you may then waste time crediting their money and you may lose the goodwill of the customer.

Inventory/catalogue: Does the e-commerce solution need to be linked to your product catalogue and/or stock and inventory system, and to what extent? If you have only a handful of products and you don't expect to sell high volumes through the website then this may not be an issue. But if you expect a high volume of sales, and/or the number of products and options being offered online is large, and/or has to be updated constantly, then you may need to have a direct link between the website and the catalogue systems on your office computers.

Maintaining the e-commerce solution: How often will you need to add, delete or update the details of products and services on the website - eg prices, availability? If it will be necessary to update the e-commerce catalogue regularly, then an efficient and effective solution will need to be provided by the web developer. You will need to balance the need for efficiency and ease of updating with the cost of the proposed maintenance solution.

Managing risk: Providing an e-commerce solution carries with it some risks. In order to limit the risks, and to ensure that you mange the expectations of your online customers, you should develop and then explain clearly on the website your policies covering:

• privacy - what you will and will not do with their details
• returns policy - under what circumstances you will accept returned items and how will they be returned?
• shipping policy - freight costs, insurance, import duties, where you will not deliver goods
• fulfilment policy - what you will do if an item/service is purchased but you cannot fulfil the order in reasonable time
• security - of their personal details, their payment records, credit card or account details if given.

There are numerous e-commerce solutions available from Internet Service Providers, web developers and specialist third-party suppliers. Probably the overriding consideration for an organisation in deciding which solution to adopt is its integrity, security and the bona-fides of those organisations that are selling it and supporting it. If you want to offer instantaneous payment by credit card, you will need to arrange it with your bank and obtain a security certificate from a registered issuer (eg Thawte - http://www.thawte.com) so that your website is secure for people providing credit card details.

When choosing an off-the-shelf solution or accepting one developed by your web developer, ensure that the solution is supported by a reputable bank and that it is deployed on websites of organisations you recognise and respect.

Successful Ecommerce

Guide to Successful Ecommerce

Ecommerce is now a multi-billion pound industry. As more consumers move online, and as online media channels increase our dependency on the internet, ecommerce continues to rise with sales volume increasing quarter after quarter. The internet has created an opportunity for a paradigm shift – offline brand exposure filters through to the internet, however in a somewhat diluted -- and third-party dependant -- fashion.
Offline retailers that moved online close sales through online channels from customers they have acquired in the offline world, however their dependence on direct media channels should not be underrated. Harnessing ecommerce often means harnessing search engine algorithms to increase organic search engine results – through this channel and through paid search, advertisers are not merely looking for traffic from branded search phrases. The ability to drive sales through generic and brand indecisive search queries created an opportunity for easy scalability and few barriers to trade compared to the offline world. Offline brands have the advantage in terms of search engine algorithms favoring editorially given links – something which they garner much easier than others – as well as their larger budgets and economies of sales which they can leverage from the offline world.
Savvy marketers, who understand the internet and how to capitalize on the opportunities it provides, are not the CEOs of ecommerce outfits seeing double digital growth as they eat away at market share of large brands. Post bubble we have seen little consolidation in the ecommerce side of the online business world either. The simple reason for this is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing has provided opportunities for savvy marketers to partner with offline retailers and take commissions on sales they refer offline. Marketers then have the opportunity to take advantage of their partner’s economies of scale, brand awareness and lack of flexibility. Affiliate marketers opt for what they see as a more scalable business model, while they sacrifice the value of a customer throughout their lifecycle and fail to use their competitive advantage to rapidly build market share when they are on an even playing field with the larger brands.
That is why the time to truly harness ecommerce is now. Through using the internet it is easy to build a scalable business which is not restricted by geography or particularly capital intensive. Through commissioning an ecommerce website you can diversify your sales channels and provide a medium through which to leverage direct marketing channels such as paid and organic search. A highly usable website coupled with great customer service will lead to high rates of customer retention, positive brand exposure and continued growth.
The important element of successful ecommerce companies is their willingness to test new marketing mediums, which do not require large initial investments, and to scale up whenever an opportunity arises. Where an asset such as a shop may cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, an ecommerce website is much cheaper, many fixed costs become variable ones, and geographical restriction is replaced with only technophobia – ensure that you capitalize on the opportunity before consolidation happens and barriers to trade tighten.

Adva and disad

Advantages and disadvantages of e Commerce

Think of eCommerce and the first few features that strike any mind are – a global marketplace – increased sales – increased profits! Not that you start claiming better margin of profit online, but because various expenses relating to marketing, promotional material, order processing, customer care, inventory management, information storage, telecommunications et al, considerably slash down.

eCommerce offers tempting but economical boost to any size or kind of business. By opting for eCommerce, you can expand your market margins to global horizons or squeeze them to highly focused market segments, as per subjective business acumen and discretion. Even a small-scale business offering quality and reliability with confidence can easily find itself brushing shoulders with its esteemed competitors in least gestation period. It facilitates wishful manifestation of your business entity – as grand and sophisticated as you wish it to be. Budget would not really restrain you here from showcasing your attitude and essence through your website and online shopping cart.

Things considerably simplify with eCommerce – be it changing prices listed on your web page or customization of products; applying innovative business models or business process re-engineering; implementing higher degree of specialization or enhancing productivity and customer care – everything hardly takes time to implement/ incorporate and exhibit.

Not to mention, quality eCommerce services collect and manage valuable customer-related information, including customer’s ordering patterns, to build a comprehensive customer database. This database vitally sharpens your marketing and promotion strategies to be remarkably on target.

As regards your business partners, eCommerce aids you in minimizing supply chain inefficiencies, bringing about reduced inventory requirement and lessened delivery delays, thereby rendering you more confident about your business collaborations with your suppliers and service companies. eCommerce inherently streamlines and automates the entire backend business process, assimilating speed and efficiency to your business activities.

As you introduce eCommerce facility to your customers, you render their shopping experience highly fluent and convenient. eCommerce seems all the more indispensable for your customers in the wake of consistently shrinking time with them to spare for shopping offline. What’s more, online shopping lets your customers reap benefits of online economies, as they often pay lesser price for identical products/ services available offline.

eCommmerce-based business benefits the society as well! As your onsite manpower requirement reduces, it lessens the burden on infrastructure and lowers demand for elaborate office complexes and spacious parking lots.

As good as it may sound, eCommerce has its own share of obstacles too that hold it back from assuming it’s full potential. To begin with, Internet in itself is still to touch the lives of a large chunk of people as an integral way of life. There are tangible privacy and security issues that keep people on guard, as they face a dilemma each time they need to divulge highly personal information online, as and when they transact online.

Non-standardized protocols for certain processes, insufficient telecommunications bandwidth and ever-evolving software tools (with incrementing versions), are some of the technical issues that contain eCommerce from being a seamlessly integrated component of the contemporary organizational IT systems.

Popularity

What is Link Popularity ?

Link popularity has become increasingly important among the search engines. Because link popularity goes hand in hand with search engine optimization. It important for any company with a web presence to build a link development strategy. Link popularity is not simply obtaining as many links as possible. The quality of the links holds more weight, than the quantity of links. You will get better results in the search engines if you have link popularity from sites that have considerable traffic. To develop popularity for your web site, consider the 5 tips:

1) High Traffic Web Directories:- Submit your site to the most visited directories. Yahoo of course at (yahoo.com), LookSmart (looksmart.com), and Open Directory (dmoz.org) are examples of major directories.

2) Reciprocal link exchanges:- One of the best ways to get links is to give links, through reciprocal exchanges. Using link exchanges does two things. First, it makes getting links easier. Most webmasters are willing to help each other, so if you give them a link, most times they will return the favor. Second, by adding links to other quality websites, it increases the quality of your own website. Finally, you are providing a resource (links to other websites) for your visitors. Will you lose potential customer's If your website is good, you don't have to worry. When looking for possible link candidates, start by searching your strategic keywords at major search portals. You'll see a lot of competitors, but look for non-competing, complementary sites. Screen these sites, selecting those likely to be receptive to your link request. Give them a compelling reason to link to your site. Show them where a link might be advantageous. A good strategy is to link to them first, which might help get a link back. Target respected and popular sites of relevance to your target audience. A note about what is meant by a "quality" website. You do not want to link to any old website. You need to research the website and note such things as its Google page rank, theme, search engine optimization the websites it links to, etc. You only want to link to the best websites you can. Unfortunately when you are first starting out, many websites will not want to since you are new ...In that case you might have to search a bit harder and may be "lower your standards" some but your persistent will pay off. Set goals and stick to them.

3) Link ability Within Your Site:- Provide quality resources and appropriate outgoing links, including links to search engines, news hubs, weather reports, industry resources, industry professional groups, etc. Outgoing links are important for they provide incentive for other quality sites to link to yours, and they can improve your PR score if internal linkage is done properly.

4) Write Articles:- Write articles related to your target audience and submit the articles to appropriate online publications. Include your Web site URL in the bio and make it a condition for publication that the articles appear with bio and company link. This can generate many links and can also help promote future business.

5) Well Designed and Optimized Web Site:- Before worrying about getting those links, you need to create quality content that will make people want to link to you. Your website needs to be designed properly and optimized before you worry about links. The time spent getting your website's overall design and content properly done will make your link popularity grow even faster later. If your website is new and has been designed well and optimized, do not fall for those "get link popularity quick schemes". Be patient-it takes time. Yes, you should work on link popularity but you just can't get a link from anyone. While increasing link popularity is of fundamental importance, you should take note that there are certain strategies to avoid. These strategies hyped in the past should be avoided because they're now worthless and can get you penalized in search engines. Here are 3 strategies to avoid:

a) Link Farms:- A link farm is a network of sites linking to other sites for the sole purpose of increasing link popularity. Search engines consider this spasming and will remove sites associated with link farms.

b) Reciprocal Link Exchange Services:- Networks consisting of hundreds of webmasters with sites on numerous topics are linked to one another. The service requires linking to all sites in network, making content unrelated. Search engines consider this spasming.

c) FFA Listings:- Free For All Listings appear and disappear rather quickly. Few people search through the listings except for spammers collecting email addresses. These sites are not indexed by search engines. In conclusion, link popularity cannot be overlooked, but as with any web site promotional technique, to be effective it has to be done properly. Running a link campaign can take a little time, but is well worth the effort if the groundwork has been laid and you put the time into it that it deserves, for these links establish relevancy, a top priority for search engines and consumers alike. Only then will it truly help your website out.

Basics and Planning

Basics and Planning

Introduction

Advertising and promotions is bringing a service to the attention of potential and current customers. Advertising and promotions are best carried out by implementing an advertising and promotions plan. The goals of the plan should depend very much on the overall goals and strategies of the organization, and the results of the marketing analysis, including the positioning statement.

The plan usually includes what target markets you want to reach, what features and benefits you want to convey to them, how you will convey it to them (this is often called your advertising campaign), who is responsible to carry the various activities in the plan and how much money is budgeted for this effort. Successful advertising depends very much on knowing the preferred methods and styles of communications of the target markets that you want to reach with your ads. A media plan and calendar can be very useful, which specifies what advertising methods are used and when.

For each service, carefully consider: What target markets are you trying to reach with your ads? What would you like them to think and perceive about your products (this should be in terms of benefits to them, not you)? How can you get them to think and perceive that? What communications media do they see or prefer the most? Consider TV, radio, newsletters, classifieds, displays/signs, posters, word of mouth, press releases, direct mail, special events, brochures, neighborhood newsletters, etc.

What media is most practical for you to use in terms of access and affordability (the amount spent on advertising is often based on the revenue expected from the product or service, that is, the sales forecast)?
You can often find out a lot about your customers preferences just by conducting some basic market research methods. The following closely related links might be useful in preparation for your planning.

Growing 2

Growing Your Business On The Net

INTERNET COLUMN #17

by Peter DeWolf


In the last column we looked at the advantages business can realize from a
presence on the Internet. This week I will look at the mechanics of making
those possibilities work for you.

A Home Page is the usual way in which a business or a person lets the world
know they are there. Most Home Pages are written in a computer language
known as HTML, or Hyper Text Markup Language, a protocol that most
modern computers and navigation programs can read while they are
connected to the Internet. HTML allows for graphics and colour, as well as
text, and can interface with GIF & JPG type pictures. In layman's language,
this means that you can not only show your text ad, but pictures of your
products, logos, and other graphics. Some specialized add-ons can also allow
those people so equipped, to hear sound and watch moving video, advertising
your business. The new Java protocol will soon allow this type of interactive
production to be commonplace, rather than the exception.

The production of your Home Page should be done as carefully as you would
place any advertising, reflecting your professional image. One of the biggest
mistakes, is to put a lot of graphics on your main page. As we have discussed
before, the Internet can be slow at times, and there is nothing more frustrating
than logging onto a site, only to wait several minutes while 10 pictures with
high graphic content, try to squeeze down the pipeline. I can promise it will
be the last time I log onto your site. The best way to approach the problem, is
to have a main page, with Hyperlinks to secondary pages. This way, the
customer can download the main page quickly, make a selection from a
menu, and go directly to the products or services they have a particular
interest in. I don't want a graphic picture of widgets, when it is gidgets I want
to buy.

Getting yourself listed on the search engines is also critical, as when most
people go looking information, this is where they start. Listings with other
related, but non-competing businesses is another way to increase the number
of visitors to your site. You will be expected to reciprocate of course, so
make room on your home page or site for "links to related sites". This is done
in the HTML format, with a graphic button, or highlighted text, with a URL
or address imbedded. When clicked on by a visitor, it downloads the new
address to their computer, and away they go to the new location.

Several programs are available including HTML Pro, and HotDog, to allow
you to create your own pages, but unless you have some experience, or are
willing to spend the time to learn, I suggest you have someone create the page
for you. It is art as well as programming, and a pretty good knowledge of the
Internet is helpful. There are a number of companies and individuals who do
this professionally, so look around carefully, some are better than others.

To obtain a home page, most Internet Service Providers allow non-
commercial space to private individuals as part of their regular account, but
charge an additional fee, generally in the 25 to 50 dollar range per month for
commercial enterprises, depending on the size and traffic expected. They may
also be able to point you in the direction of a reputable consultant. With 4
billion dollars in direct business on the Internet, it makes sense to get on
board now. In the next column we will look at security on the Internet, myths
and fact. The truth will surprise you. Until then, see you in cyberspace.

Peter DeWolf is a freelance journalist & former broadcaster who surfs the
net from his home near Glasgow Station Ontario. He may be reached
through this newspaper, or by e-mail at "whisper@igs.net".

Growing

Business Growing On The Net

by Peter DeWolf


Business is everywhere on the Internet. Small companies and large are
making their presence felt. According to a recent survey done by Jupiter
Communications, a research firm in New York, 132 million dollars US was
the total business transacted directly on the Internet during 1995. This does
not include business that may have been attracted by a Web presence, and
completed off-line by conventional means.

In 1996, projections call for this amount of direct Internet commerce to triple,
and by the year 2000, less than 4 years from now, the amount will top 4
billion dollars US annually. Not only are computer-related businesses going
on-line to advertise and sell their wares, but such mail-order giants as L.L.
Bean and Eddie Bauer Corporation. You can view their products, and order
on-line. Even Pizza Hut can be found, and yes, you can order the stuffed crust
too. It is only a matter of time before your screen lights up with "would you
like fries with that too?".

Many towns and cities are on the Internet, with maps, guides aimed at tourists
and investors, and even real estate listings. It has become possible to get
information on your destination, book hotel reservations, and a flight; then
notify your relatives of your arrival time, all on-line. Oh yes, don't forget to
make reservations at a nice restaurant, a complete listing of good eating
establishments are available for many cities. The local newspaper on-line will
provide you with a lot of great ideas also.

The smaller business person will say, this is all wonderful, but how does it
relate to me? I am not a huge corporation with a big market area or share. A
perfect example is a local business in my area, who makes custom wood
furniture. Before he hooked up to the Internet, his possible market was
restricted to the Ottawa Valley, and by word of mouth. With a Web Page, he
now attracts inquiries and business from all over the world. His cost is less
than 50 dollars a month for this opportunity to have a world-wide presence. If
you are interested in visiting a well set-up Page that attracts attention and is
well organised try "http://www.igs.net/woodworks".

The important thing for any business is to clearly define what they wish to
accomplish on the Internet, and take the time and effort to present the right
image. As in any business, first impressions mean a lot, and how your product
or service appear will determine your success. A well organized presentation,
done professionally, will attract the clientele you want. Unless you feel
comfortable working with Hypertext Mark-up Language, it might be
advisable to use a consultant. Talk to your Internet Service Provider, he may
have some suggestions, or talk to other businesses you see on the Net, and
ask. It is common for a Web Page to have an author's name on it, so if you
see a presentation that catches your eye, see if the consultant who produced it
is listed, or contact the company and ask. Remember, with the Internet, it
doesn't matter if the consultant is nearby, because distance has no meaning on
the Web.
Until next time, see you in cyberspace. Drop me a line at "whisper@igs.net".

Business on the Net

by Peter DeWolf


Imagine millions of potential customers exposed to your unique products and services.
Would that increase the chances of your business expanding and thriving in these tough
economic times? Add to that not having to pay a large rent bill every month, or cover the
financial burdens of a large inventory, and have I got your attention? Large and small
companies alike are discovering the Internet, and the potential it represents. A recent
survey found that upwards of 74% of medium and large businesses in North America are
planning to make use of the Internet for intercommunications and a information resource.
Fully 23% are interested in selling their services or goods directly on the Web.

Most Internet users are in the profile that business today wishes to attract, the 25 to 50
year old, with a 30,000 dollar a year or more income, and a few dollars of disposable
income. This group represents the majority of Internet users, and traditionally businesses
have paid big dollars to get their message to this audience. A Home Page, properly
planned and executed, can bring in big rewards by extending the reach of your current
marketing techniques to encompass whole new areas.

Many businesses are already advertising on some of the more popular Internet sites, by
placing their logos at the top of the page. This usually contains a link that a potential
customer can click on to reach the advertiser's Home Page, to get more information, and
in some cases, even place an order. Some sites even have multiple pages that allow the
business to show off its product or services in some detail.

Current technology for home pages includes the protocol HTML, or hyper text machine
language. It can be difficult to work with, but programs are available to allow you to "roll
your own". If you don't have the time or the inclination to learn for yourself, then you
guessed it, there are businesses set up to do the work for you in a professional manner.

The future is even more exciting. Already, in a few selected sites, is a new protocol called
Hot Java, which will allow for audio and moving video clips to enhance your presentation.
Imagine a TV ad aimed at your potential customer, when he is actually watching, and not
busy at the refrigerator. Best of all, they have chosen to watch, as they have a genuine
interest in your product.

A good non-profit Home Page I have seen recently is for the Optimist Club in the Ottawa
Valley. They are available by asking your search engine for Arnprior, and then click on
Optimist Club. There are multiple links to individual clubs, and related organisations, and
after connecting to the Arnprior Club, I can even get a listing of my favourite Redman
games. That information is available to anyone on the Web, anywhere in the world.

At last count there were 10 million users on the Internet, and that is expected to increase
to well over 100 million in the next five years, and to 200 million by 2005. That is a lot of
potential customers. My server's home page which lists a number of links to area
businesses has had almost 55,000 visitors since mid-summer. Yes, you can even count the
number of times your page has been accessed.

When I am finished this column, I will be checking into the Net, sending this article to be
typeset, downloading my mail, then renewing a subscription to a magazine, all without
stamps, or a visit to the post office, or writing a cheque; you get the idea. That leaves me
time to enjoy a quiet cup of coffee at my favourite restaurant, before heading into work.

One question I have been asked by several people is what is the gender gap on the Net?
All the research I have seen indicates that in actual users, 25% are women. That gap is
likely to close, as women are now far less intimidated by technology, and are actually
more willing to try new ways of doing things, than many men. With many women now
starting home based businesses, the Internet provides them with great potential for
expansion, so the feeling is that women may soon exceed men in their utilisation of this
technology.

I look forward to the day, not far off, when I can enjoy my coffee at home, and do my
days work without having to leave my house. For many people, Huxley's prediction of a
brave new society without work in the traditional sense, is not far off. Information and the
ability to distribute and accumulate it, is fast becoming the true coin of the realm.

I invite your comments and suggestions, as they allow this column to be relevant to your
interests. Until next time, see you in cyberspace.


Peter DeWolf is a freelance journalist, and former broadcaster who makes Glasgow
Station Ontario his home. He may be reached concerning this column through this
newspaper, or by e-mail at "whisper@igs.net".

Turning hits

Turning hits into sales

Australia is among the world leaders in Internet access - only Sweden, Canada and the United States have greater access.

Worldwide it has only taken four years for the Internet to reach 50 million users. This compares to 36 years for radio, 13 years for TV and 16 years for personal computers.

It is expected that in just over two years time worldwide sales using the Internet will generate more than $1 trillion. In Australia it is expected that these e-commerce transactions will top $14 billion by 2003.

It is not uncommon for small businesses to feel apprehensive about using e-commerce.

People often worry about alienating existing customers and the challenges of new technology without thinking of the benefits:

• regional businesses can overcome the tyranny of distance
• reduced costs associated with marketing, order management, billing and supply chain management
• better business to business operations (inventories, shipping, reporting, sales transactions and customer support)
• global advertising of their products and services at lower costs.

The department assists Queensland businesses to get "on-line" through:

• e-commerce training for medium sized businesses in regional Queensland through a series of workshops and seminars.
• employing nine IT specialists in the metropolitan and coastal areas of the State, to assist business making the transition to e-commerce.

Essential tools

Essential internet tools

1. Develop your website

Contact an Internet Service Provider (ISP) who will register a domain name for your business (for instance: www.mynewbusiness.com.au).

A listing of all Australian Internet Service Providers may be obtained from the Internet Industry Association. Phone: (02....

2. Produce appropriate electronic information for your website

Customers around the world will view your website, so it's important to produce appropriate business and product information.

Usually the saying "less is more" can also be applied to websites. You may offer downloadable product samples, information and other interactive online discussion services, but significant publications and products should be offered as a follow-up service.

3. Provide online ordering facilities

Many websites act simply as a corporate brochure for a company.

However effective websites for Queensland exporters should provide online ordering facilities. In this fashion overseas visitors to your site can directly place orders for your products and services.

4. Provide online payment facilities

As well as offering online ordering facilities, your website should also offer online payment facilities.

Not only will this mean that the company receives payment before the order is filled, it will be a boon to the business' cashflow as you are no longer waiting for payment.

5. Promote your web address

It's all very well to have an effective website with terrific corporate information, as well as online ordering and payment facilities, but if no-one knows the address this website will be a useless marketing tool.

Promoting the web address for your business will become essential:

• ensure the address is included in all appropriate search engines
• hyperlink your site to other web addresses (eg many industry associations provide links from their website to their members)
• print your web address on all stationery, advertisements, brochures, packaging, orders, invoices and anywhere else you promote your business.

Issues to consider when designing an effective business website include:

1. Speed

Slow sites will deter online users. Heavy graphics or wrong servers for site hosting can cause performance problems, however as more and more Internet users gain access to broadband this problem will decrease.

2. Navigation

More and more web pages are beginning to look the same as they start to adopt similar navigation tools to help the user move around the site. While this may not seem very creative it does set a standard to frequent online shoppers.

3. Content

More often than not, less is best. The follow-up material that you can post or email to your customers will bring them back to your site.

4. Interactivity

Ask your customers for their input. Also offer facilities to enable your customers to order goods, check their account balances, view inventory, check order status and update their contact information.

5. Suppliers

Steps

Steps in the webolution

The maturing of an e-commerce site:

Step 1 - Broadcast

The first step most organisations take into e-commerce is to set up a webpage to broadcast their message. This style of site is basically an electronic brochure or catalogue. The organisations products or services are promoted through browsers accessing the webpage. This type of site is stand alone and has no form of interactivity with the browser. The site is designed for the distribution of information one way.

Step 2 - Interactive

The interactive site is usually the next step in the webolution. This style of site begins the process of transactions across the internet. It may provide the ability to ask questions and receive advice over the internet. The type of site is designed to pass information both ways.

Step 3 - Transaction

This is the type of site that most people associate with ecommerce, it is where business transactions are conducted via the internet. The information transfer is bidirectional. This level of site usually has secure transactions such as credit payments or secure login facilities.

Step 4 - Integration

Integration is the most productivity effective step in the webolution, unfortunately it is also the most expensive. Studies have conclusively shown that in order to gain the full benefit of web technology it is essential to have backend integration into your accounting / inventory system. What this means is when a client accesses your site and places an order, the data entry is directly into your inventory system therefore alleviating multiple data entry and effectively updating your accounting system.

The web site must:

1. Serve as a commercial site to generate sales of a range of products and services.
   
   
2. Build company awareness, ie serve as an advertising and marketing tool for your business.
   
   
3. Serve as a channel of communication between your business, existing customers and potential customer.
   
   
4. Serve as a conduit for customer service and basic market research.
   
   
5. Use a database application for easy and immediate update.
   
   
6. Incorporate catalogue facilities within the database.
   
   
7. Include a search engine.
   
   
8. Make it easy for visitors to find what they are looking for in a very short period of time.
   
   
9. Navigation controls should be clearly labelled or be other wise recognisable.
   
   
10. Provide information to visitors or customers about how to contact the business.
    
    
11. Attracting visitors to the web site, sustaining visitor attention, and encouraging repeated visits, by making the site interesting enough so that visitors stay, explore and return.
    
    
12. The web site must not only present content and information. It must also be relevant, engaging and encourage interaction with your business.
    
    
13. Convincing visitors to follow the site's links to obtain information.
    
    
14. Offering easily accessible facts about the business.
    
    
15. Offering easily accessible information about products and services, and how to use and/or acquire them.
    
    
16. Converting visitors into customers.
    
    
17. Providing visitors with a meaningful, two-way communication link with the business.
    
    
18. Creating an impression consistent with the business's desired image.
    
    
19. Reinforcing positive images that the visitor might already have about the business.
    
    
20. Integrating the opportunity for enhancing the image of the business with the provision of information.
    
    
21. Design of consistency across pages in terms of layout/page composition, design features, theme and colour.
    
    
22. Registration of the web site with search engines and directories; as well as the inclusion of as many relevant meta-tags as possible.
    
    
23. Interaction with the ISP hosting the web site and obtaining web usage statistics.

Types of Ecom

Types of e-commerce

There are a number of different types of e-commerce:

B2B - Business to Business

Business to Business e-commerce has been in use for quite a few years and is more commonly known as EDI (electronic data interchange). In the past EDI was conducted on a direct link of some form between the two businesses where as today the most popular connection is the internet. The two businesses pass information electronically to each other. B2B e-commerce currently makes up about 94% of all e-commerce transactions.

B2C - Business to Consumer

Business to Consumer e-commerce is relatively new to Australia. This is where the consumer accesses the system of the supplier. It is still a two way function but is usually done solely through the Internet.

Example: A home user wishes to purchase some good quality wine. The user accesses the Internet site http://www.craigs.com.au and follows the links to read a report on the recommended wines. After reading the tasting notes the user follows the links to place an order along with delivery and payment details directly into the merchants inventory system. The wine is then dispatched from the suppliers warehouse and in theory is delivered to the consumer without delay.

C2B - Consumer to Business

Consumer to Business is a growing arena where the consumer requests a specific service from the business.

Example: Harry is planning a holiday in Darwin. He requires a flight in the first week of December and is only willing to pay $250. Harry places a submission with in a web based C2B facility. Budget Price Airways accesses the facility and sees Harry's submission. Due to it being a slow period, the airline offers Harry a return fare for $250.

B2E - Business to Employee

Business to Employee e-commerce is growing in use. This form of e-commerce is more commonly known as an 'Intranet'. An intranet is a web site developed to provide employees of an organisation with information. The intranet is usually accessed through the organisation's network, though it can and is often extended to an entrant who uses the Internet but restricts uses by signon and password.

C2C - Consumer to Consumer

These sites are usually some form of an auction site. The consumer lists items for sale with a commercial auction site. Other consumers access the site and place bids on the items. The site then provides a connection between the seller and buyer to complete the transaction. The site provider usually charges a transaction cost. In reality this site should be call C2B2C.

strategy

E-Commerce strategy

The Department has set itself a vision that Queensland will be a leading participant in the global new economy with the objective that the Department of tourism, Regional Development and Industry will be a catalyst for the uptake of e-commerce by Queensland businesses.

To achieve this vision and objective, the department will pursue the following four key strategies:

1. Facilitating e-commerce for business

The department will facilitate the uptake of e-commerce within the business community by actively promoting e-commerce to business, raising awareness and providing measures which support effective e-commerce adoption.

2. Creating the capability

The department will assist in the provision of hard and soft infrastructure necessary for successful participation in the information economy.

3. Providing leadership within government

The department will coordinate with and influence other agencies, at the State, Commonwealth and Local level, to promote the benefits of e-commerce and to encourage them to develop initiatives aimed at increasing the uptake of e-commerce by the business community.

4. Modelling the way

The department will become an active adopter of e-commerce technologies leading to improvements in its internal business processes and service delivery and opportunities for clients and suppliers to be exposed to secure e-commerce transactions.

benefits

E-Commerce benefits

The face of doing business both within Australia and overseas is rapidly changing. The Internet, electronic funds transfer, e-commerce and the like have brought with them both opportunities and threats.

Your business competitors may no longer be just the business down the street, but a business located in any number of places around the world.

The flip side of course is that your potential market is now not just your local area, or even Queensland, but cashed up consumers across the world.

E-commerce won't go away. On-line and Internet commerce is currently experiencing dramatic growth, and is expected to add 2.7% to Australia's GDP by 2007. Aggregate employment is also expected to rise by half a per cent as a result of e-commerce. It is now a truism that to stay in business in the new millennium, e-commerce will have to be a part of your business.

According to experienced organisations, the introduction of e-commerce can, if it's done correctly:

• lower transaction costs
• reduce inventory holdings
• provide a competitive business advantage
• expand one's market
• increase speed to market
• streamline supply chain management

E-commerce includes electronic trading, electronic messaging, electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic mail (e-mail), electronic catalogues, internet, intranet and extranet services.

advantages?

What is e-commerce and what are it's advantages?
The face of doing business both within Australia and overseas is rapidly changing. The internet, electronic funds transfer (EFT), e-commerce and the like have brought with them both opportunities and threats.
Your business competitors may no longer be just the business down the street, but rather a business located in any number of places around the world.
The flip side of course is that your potential market is now not just your local area, or even Queensland, but cashed up consumers across the world.
E-commerce won't go away. Online and internet commerce is currently experiencing dramatic growth. According to experienced organisations, the introduction of e-commerce can potentially:
• lower transaction costs
• reduce inventory holdings
• provide a competitive business advantage
• expand one's market
• increase speed to market
• streamline supply chain management.
E-commerce includes electronic trading, electronic messaging, electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic mail (e-mail), electronic catalogues, internet, intranet and extranet services. The Department has developed fact sheets that provide incisive information on how some leading Queensland small businesses have seized the opportunity and benefited from embracing the challenges and rewards of e-commerce.
Additional e-commerce resources:
• Departmental strategy to help small business benefit from e-commerce
• Test to find out if your business is e-commerce ready
• Access a copy of the Australian Government's e-business guide. The e-business guide will provide you with e-business information and resources
• Common types of e-commerce that your business may engage
• Strategies for converting website visits into sales
• The four webolution steps
• Ten simple checks to ensure a smart online shopping experience.

Trust

Trust & Trustworthiness

The Meanings of Trust

Trust is a concept everybody understands at some personal level, but most people will have trouble enunciating a specific definition of the concept. Some people will have strict measures they use to evaluate their level of trust in a person or company, while others rely on a more subjective "feel" for determining whether to trust somebody.

Just as every person has his or her own way of deciding issues of trust, every role a person plays will also have its own understanding of trust based on the specific goals and priorities of that role. Empathy is great for times that call for compassion and care, but in matters of trust it can be hard to see things from another's point of view. When you walk into a store that you have patronized for years, you have a level or trust about handing over your money in exchange for goods; the merchant may approach this transaction with an entirely different level of anxiety about your ability to pay -- maybe a new employee is ringing you up -- or your ownership of the credit card you proffer. Trust means different things to different people, to different roles, and in different scenarios.

Trust can mean such things as the following:

• Do I believe that what someone says is true and factual?
  If you tell me that you will pay me back next week for what you borrow today, do I believe you?
• Do I agree with a person or company's goal or what they stand for?
  Is Microsoft's dominance of the OS market really the best thing for me as a computer and software consumer?
• Do I believe that a person or company's goals and/or priorities match mine?
  If I registered at a commerce site, and the subsequently sent me newsletters and notices, is that really a service to me?
• Do I believe that a site's presentation of its informational content is objective?
  Is a site mixing advertising into its supposed editorial content?

The path people take to a level of trust can vary greatly, because some people work from the premise that trust must be earned, and some from the premise that trust is assumed but can be lost.

Earning and Losing Trust

Trust plays an important part in any transaction, but it may not be a conscious part. On a basic level, when we enter into a transaction, we make decisions about our participation: do we complete the transaction, or do we cancel the transaction?

Trust is not a characteristic that inheres in an ecommerce site; trust is a judgment made by the user, based on general experience learned from being a consumer and from the perception of the particular merchant.

In every transaction, both roles of buyer and seller must make a decision about trusting the other participant. Sometimes this decision is conscious, sometimes it's unconscious and relies on a person's default beliefs about trustworthiness in general. For example, some people I have talked with for this essay approach commerce with a general level of trust; these people by default trust merchants, but question a merchant's trustworthiness if they receive worrying feedback or negative cues. In contrast, many people don't especially trust any merchant, and must assemble much positive feedback and encounter positive cues before deciding to trust a merchant.

Those users that look for signs that they should trust a commerce web site are searching for the presence of "good" signs and the absence of "bad" signs. Good signs include professionalism of design, longevity, service, selection, positive anecdotal comments from other users, and even more points derived from personal experience. Bad signs include anything that violates expectations, as well as the obverse of the "good" points: amateurish design, newness, difficult interface, difficulty finding product, bad anecdotal comments, etc.

Trust

There is no oversight group that can objectively anoint a web site as being completely trustworthy. Trust is a subjective judgment that must be made by every user for any site, because individual goals vary and definitions of trust are unlikely to be consistent.

The merchants face the difficult task of selling themselves to the user based on the web site interface and on the advertising of the brand. Commerce sites must convince potential customers to trust the site; commerce sites have two critical messages for users, "buy from us" and "trust us". Without the user's trust, the merchant can't sell.

Users look for the presence of positive cues about a site's general trustworthiness, as well as for the absence of negative cues. Commerce sites can influence their impression of trustworthiness by carefully designing their site to avoid amateurishness, set and meet reasonable user expectations, and address common user concerns about privacy and security.

Some of the cues a user may look for while evaluating trustworthiness in a commerce site:

Is the site professional?

Have the designers taken care to create a coherent interface, or is the site the apparent product of somebody learning how to code HTML? Does the site have typos, grammatical errors, useless animation, or any of a slew of other problems that indicate that the designers or implementers don't know what they are doing? If they can't design a good site, why expect them to be able to handle commerce transactions and fulfillment? Personally, I won't deal with any site that uses the Comic Sans font face because it shouts "built by an amateur" to me.

Does the information architecture make sense?

If the organization of information doesn't appear to have been carefully designed, why expect the site designers to have thought much about fulfillment and payment systems?

Is the site easy to navigate?

Can I find the product I want to buy? Is it easy for me to browser the site looking for interesting things I might want to buy? If the designers can't make the site easy enough to navigate around, why would I trust them to have made a backend that works?

Is the site easy to use?

Can I access and use the site and its offered functionality? Can I search, browse, and purchase from the site? If I can't, because of my browser and preferred browser configuration, then the site designers are telling me that they don't want my business.

Are my questions answered?

If I'm concerned about security or privacy, can I find information that addresses these concerns without having to email a faceless answer-bot? If the designers didn't think about my possible needs before I made my purchase, why expect them to handle my needs after they have my money?

Do other people trust this site?

What's the word about this site? Have customers received their orders correctly?

Am I familiar with this company?

Have I had good experiences with this company before, on or off the web?

Are the prices reasonable?

Is the price realistic or just too cheap? Will they hit me with an outrageous shipping charge to balance the low price?

Some users will react to a positive answer to these questions, incrementally working towards a personal measurement of a passing score for trustworthiness. Others will react to negative answers, presuming a site is trustworthy but experiencing doubt when one of these issues suddenly appears to be less than satisfactory. There are no uniform answers to these questions, and no uniform attitudes of users towards these cues. The lesson for commerce sites is to understand their targeted audiences, and address their likely concerns, and always pay attention to the implications of the site's design.

The eCommerce Trust Study

The eCommerce Trust Study from Studio Archetype/Sapient and Cheskin Research presents some interesting analysis on "the nature of those elements that communicate 'trust' in e-commerce sites, be they transactional or graphical." According to this study:

The factors that produce a sense of trustworthiness need to be identified, in their entirety. Their interactions need to be understood, and their relative importance determined. Understanding the roles of these different factors would allow online retailers to ease consumers' concerns, and could hasten the maturation of Web retailing.

The report describes 6 main components (along with a total of 28 sub-components which I won't mention here) of a commerce site that suggest trustworthiness:

1. Seals of Approval -- Symbols, like VeriSign and Visa, designed to re-assure the visitor that security has been established. The companies that provide these seals of approval are referred to in this report as "security brands.
2. Brand -- The corporation's promise to deliver specific attributes and its credibility based on reputation and the visitor's possible previous experience.
3. Navigation -- The ease of finding what the visitor seeks.
4. Fulfillment -- Clearly indicates how orders will be processed, and provides information on how to seek recourse if there are problems.
5. Presentation -- Design attributes that connote quality and professionalism.
6. Technology -- State of the art connotes professionalism, even if it's difficult to use.

This study has some valuable insights into user attitudes towards trust and ecommerce sites, and is clearly required reading for anyone interested in understanding online commerce. I do, however, have some issues with the report.

First, this analysis seems to consider online commerce in isolation. Ecommerce is a new kind of shopping experience in a new medium, but this experience is still new enough that the vast majority of people who buy online learned how to buy offline. Addressing ecommerce in isolation presumes that it can be studied as its own phenomenon with no experiential antecedents, which is unrealistic and will likely produce misunderstandings of ecommerce and user behavior.

If this study relies on an assumption that ecommerce is simply a modal variation of traditional commerce, then any analysis will be flawed. The fact is that the customer's experience of the characteristics of traditional commerce does not map to online commerce, forcing the customer to seek imperfect analogs. The eCommerce Trust Study would be more accurate if it had addressed the chasm between what customers understand from traditional commerce, and what online commerce can possibly address.

Second, I think this report is a bit free in its lack of clear differentiation between what the merchant can do -- suggest that it is trustworthy -- and what the user must do -- decide whether or not to trust the merchant. Granted, there is no checklist for commerce design that specifies everything that must be done a certain way to be correct, and no checklist that has a test for everything that might be done incorrectly. Commerce site designers, however, must understand that they cannot code trust into a site, they can only suggest trust. Trust is a property controlled by the customer.