ECommerce

Functionality tips for an ecommerce website (03/14/2011)
(...) It's easiest if you use some sort of template for that home page design, into which you can easily put the products you're currently promoting. This argues for some sort of home page automation, as opposed to you manually recoding the page each time you change featured products. Navigation and Search While you might sell some products directly from your site's home page, it's more likely that customers are likely to either browse or search for the precise products they're searching for. (...)

Discover your brand and transform its weaknesses into strengths (03/24/2010)
(...) How will your brand be able to grow – and keep on growing? Can it create new audiences/distribution channels/product offerings/ strategic alliances? What ‘outside’ factors (for example economic trends, political climates, technological innovations) are likely to have a positive effect upon your brand? How can you use these to maximum advantage? Threats Not a pleasant task for anyone with a nervous disposition. This is where you force yourself to confront a whole raft of ‘nightmare scenarios’, any one of which could spell curtains for your brand, your business, your mortgage, your early retirement plans… So why put yourself through this agony? Because ‘forewarned is forearmed’; it may help you to prevent the very disaster you fear, or at the very least, minimise the damage. What factors are likely to damage your brand? Internal factors, for example lack of funding, or core members of the team defecting to the opposition Competitive brand factors, for example new brand launches Category factors, for example City scepticism ‘Outside’ factors, for example unsympathetic economic trends or hostile political climates. (...)

Study your competition and beat it by improving your business (03/24/2010)
(...) Try and see the world through their eyes. Do you know what music they are listening to? Spend some time listening to their charts and looking at who is being talked about/ written about. Participate in the more ‘underground’ forms of communication: the chat rooms, the forums, the newsgroups. (...)

Use team work to bring your online brand to life (03/24/2010)
(...) Bringing your Brand Vision to life – the branding idea If the Brand Vision is the internal expression of what your brand should stand for, the Branding Idea is its external manifestation. It is the enduring, ownable expression that gives your brand fame, meaning and distinctiveness. And it stems directly from the brand positioning, as articulated by the Brand Funnel and the Brand Vision. (...)

Executives must consider the Internet a new business branch (03/24/2010)
(...) Bricks-and-mortar companies looking to extend their brands into cyberspace often have made enormous investments in mainframe-based systems, ERP applications, and data centres. They need to integrate and automate their existing billing, accounting, and order processing systems with each other, with their new Web-enabled eCommerce applications, and often with other companies across the Internet. And they need to manage the business-to-business transaction chains that many new eCommerce business models require – whether it’s Web-based supply chains or industry-to-industry trading exchanges. (...)

Target audience for an online business varies by countries (03/17/2010)
(...) This in turn explains her behaviour – spending significant amounts of time on the Internet surfing for the best deal on the thirdage.com community site. Internet business will derive the most benefit from discovering their customers' values, and matching these with their Web sites and merchandising principles. (...)

Best idea for online business is to create new value (03/17/2010)
(...) Hard to find products in fragmented markets represent an online opportunity. If you are looking for a Georgian armchair you could spend months touring antique shops to find the right one. Now you can visit Southeby, Amazon or icollector. (...)

Internet business launching with a local regional or global offer (03/17/2010)
(...) Not everyone is that brave or stupid but even local launch business plans should demonstrate European potential – think big, even if you start small. Thinking big requires a European rollout plan, European finances and a competitive review across the whole of Europe, not just the local market. This analysis will lead you to a deep understanding of a relevant core offer that can both satisfy customers and be replicated across regions or countries easily. (...)

The European market appeals to online businesses (03/16/2010)
(...) Size of the population The top 15 European countries contain 373m people, over 100m more than the US. Over 80% of this population can be found in just five countries: the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. By conquering these countries a European business can start to achieve the scale needed to compete with the US. (...)

What is the compelling business value in online businesses (03/15/2010)
(...) 5bn sales in 2000, growing at 40% per year with net income of $1.3bn with an eEnabled supply chain. Internet retailing can and will be a very profitable business for the market leaders. (...)

European businesses have been slow to embrace the Internet (03/15/2010)
(...) There are some strong indications that Europe is smelling the coffee. An Andersen Consulting survey has tracked the changing attitudes of European businessmen. Based on interviews with European business managers, the study, eEurope Takes Off, shows bricks and mortar firms beginning to 'get the e-thing'– a worrying trend for the entrepreneur trying to beat them to the action. (...)

The Internet helps customers to buy and use your products (03/15/2010)
(...) Others may choose what part of the buying process they want to do via online access and what part they still prefer to use a dealer for. eToys.com, Drugstore. (...)

Online businesses must provide quality to buyers in order to succeed (03/15/2010)
(...) In the pharmaceuticals industry, Professional Detailing leverages the power of the Internet to represent drug companies that wish to outsource their dedicated sales force. Maintaining this capability in-house is difficult for all but the largest pharmaceutical companies. Professional Detailing employs over 900 sales representatives who are shared by its clients, including six of the top ten pharmaceutical companies. (...)

Internet business context and fulfilment providers and payment enablers (03/15/2010)
(...) Companies like American Express and bank consortia like Visa and Mastercard made payment and financial risk management an independently branded activity that today spans almost every industry and every geographic location. Later, these organisations and fledgling independents began to offer corporate procurement cards. The Internet has created new possibilities. (...)