SBTDC e-BRG what

What is e-commerce?

This topic has no absolute answer but a number of answers, depending upon the company pursuing the question. According to Cisco Systems, a partner in educational efforts with the US Small Business Administration (SBA), e-commerce is defined by what it offers: technology to manage increased customer demand, new competition from globalized markets, and the rising cost of transacting business. It is a highly available, secure, and scalable e-commerce solution that enables you to:

Capture and maintain market share
Scale customer service
Reduce operating costs
Increase trading efficiencies
Secure business and financial transactions

http://www.sba.gov/classroom/CoSponsors.html

These websites can offer more information about e-commerce.

http://ecommerce.ncsu.edu/topics/index.html

To those who study e-commerce, it is an economic force that “will give rise to new kinds of business models… and likely reinvent tried-and-true models. These models are: Brokerage, Advertising, Infomediary, Merchant, Manufacturer, Affiliate, Community, Subscription, and Utility”

[Michael Rappa of the North Carolina State University Business School]

Examples and descriptions of these models in the website referenced above provide insight into e-commerce that can best be given by example.

http://www.ncsmallbiz.org/ECommerceDef.htm

To many business owners, it is both an opportunity and an unknown. It is a chance to increase market share, expand service promotion, add new products, offer new services, and, most importantly, a new opportunity to increase the bottom line and even out cash flow. It is also an unknown media, with misunderstood applications, technologies, and costs. It is technology for the purpose of application that cannot be purchased and brought into the room, but must be incorporated into the heart and sole of the business.

http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/00/05-realnames.html

Trends for e-commerce are changing almost as fast as the technology. The idea of the domain name having meaning as well as being the road to a company’s website is fast diminishing. A dot-COM no longer means a company, a dot-ORG no longer means a not-for-profit business, etc. The naming convention and how potential clients get to your business will be changing with new search engine technology and naming techniques.

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/news/articles/991001-3.shtml

Newer, faster web services such as cable TV and specialized phone lines have taken the wait out of web maintenance and design time. New, easier to use, and more comprehensive web software and web hosting sites are making easier to build and maintain websites. These faster services and easy-to-use software are making it more likely that a small business owner can actually get on the web and manage the company site without major frustration, delays, and expense.

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/

In August 2000, women became the majority of web users in the US for the first time in history, a milestone for an Internet once considered a male-oriented environment. Such demographic turning points generate great media and industry interest because e-commerce companies want to know exactly who makes up the web audience.

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