Ecommerce.

The second advantage of e commerce is the opportunity it offers to save on costs. )

· Does the business work different hours from clients, or in a different time zone? Are there time differences between you and the client, do you seek or provide considered answers to questions in a few hours turn-around?

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· Three of every four large firms (over 50 full-time staff) now have their own website and almost all

· (95%) have a domain name. This gives business owners the ability to inform customers of any changes to the service that you are offering. As this trend increases the customer will gain more control over the supply process, and customer responsiveness will become more important. Software and electronic sectors and business information sectors already use the internet for supplying data, technical assistance, upgrades and demonstrations. With increased speeds of communication, the delivery time is much faster and that makes the whole transaction from start to finish more efficient.

· 92% of organisations sampled used a computer

· 21% of organisations had a website capable of taking orders

· 8% of organisations could handle taking payments online

With respect to other New Zealand ecommerce activities:

· 50% of organisations purchased supplies online

· 33% of organisations were involved in financial transactions on a daily basis

· 29% of organisations were linked to partners via an extranet

Opportunities

The linking of companies via communications into global networks is providing a range of new resources and increased opportunities for the small firm.

· The present survey is of 726 firms with six or more full-time staff. Relationship management can be often be the key to small business success. The following implications for small business need to be thought through and would be relevant for majority of groups projects:

How is value added created?

· To what extent does the business add value by assembling and transferring information?

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

· What is the threat from suppliers or competitors using electronic communications to go directly to the client?

What is the nature of the business transaction?

· What is the information content of the transactions undertaken with customers or suppliers, relative to the physical contents?. Because of this trend there will be an increasing demand for the supplier or distributor business to be part of the workflow process. These funds can then be diverted to marketing and advertising of your product or service.

The main advantage that e-commerce possesses is speed.