Businesses can be promoted internationally on the internet and business transactions - buying, selling and payment can be carried out on line. The continuing trends are for new services coming online at a rapid rate from all corners of the globe. Some high spending consumer groups are adopting the internet as a way of shopping. Increased opportunities for niche markets are arising, as are greater competition for those not meeting customer needs precisely.

The initial presence of a business online is an electronic address and a home page on the internet, the home page is in essence an electronic brochure or catalogue. It is stored in electronic format on that businesses computer or on a service providers computer.

Electronic commerce will impact on consumer markets and busi

· Is regular interaction with clients, or other key stakeholders, important as part of the production or business process (design, development, problem solving etc.)

· Does the firm have the capability to manage this process electronically along with the other media?

· To what extent are the information services provided by the business routine ? The more routine the services, the more likely candidates they are for automating via computer.

The main advantage that e-commerce possesses is speed. The Internet and World Wide Web gives businesses opportunities to exchange messages or complete transactions almost instantaneously. Even with the slowest connections, doing business electronically is much faster than traditional methods. With increased speeds of communication, the delivery time is much faster and that makes the whole transaction from start to finish more efficient. Also, you can find practically any product available for sale on the Internet. Even more significant is the fact that information appearing on the Internet can be changed extremely rapidly. This gives business owners the ability to inform customers of any changes to the service that you are offering. This also allows for you to update marketing and promotional materials as frequently as you would like.

The use of the internet/e-commerce is similar to personal networking where activities include making new contacts, exchanging information, working on joint problem solving all which is leading to mutual gain. As more information and know how is accessible via computer networks, the skill of bringing these different sources together in applications will be of more value. Similar to high value added manufacturing is created through design and assembly of components, the e-commerce value added services are in the design and assembly of knowledge based solutions.

The second advantage of e commerce is the opportunity it offers to save on costs. Using the web to provide customer support is an excellent vehicle to help build the reliability and effectiveness of your product or service. The ability to provide on-line answers to problems through email or an provide an archive

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