E-BUSINESS AND E-COMMERCE

E-business and E-commerce



E-business and E-commerce

Introduction

Businesses around the world are faced with numerous challenges and same goes for the businesses which are doing it electronically. E-businesses are faced with new and diversified challenges when they enter into the vast market, where different culture prevails. These challenges are consequences of two fundamental elements: the core cultural values of global customers, and the culturally sensitive applications of technology. The diversity in cultures is important aspect which has a great impact on the E-business and global customers. This diversity of cultures raises numerous questions, which includes why it is important to consider the core values and culture of customer when conducting business online? And how do businesses influence their information technology (IT) applications in light of cultural diversity demonstrated by global customers? By answering these questions, the global E-business markets can effectively use their Information Technology in a multicultural market (Schein, 1999, Pp. 19). E-Tees is an online T-shirts company who trades online. There are various challenges that this company faces while conducting the business. In order to tackle these challenges, some strategies need to be adopted so that the company may operate in the long run (Schein, 1999, Pp. 15).

E-Commerce as a Centralizing Force

Although the death of distance has been overstated, e-commerce does help ameliorate the friction of distance—sometimes by directly replacing traditional sales channels but more importantly by operating in the background to make them proceed more efficiently. Many individuals engage in e-commerce, of course—either shopping directly through online retail stores or buying and selling items through intermediaries such as eBay or Amazon. These exchanges may be the most visible form of e-commerce, and they have experienced positive growth in many countries around the world, but they actually make up a rather minor portion of it. For example, retail transactions, also known as business-to-consumer (B2C) sales, account for only a quarter of e-commerce shipments in Canada and a negligible 3.2% of total retail sales in the United States (Kowtha, 2001, Pp. 227). The major portions of E-commerce activities are concentrated in the wholesale and manufacturing markets, which mean that they are dependent on business to business (B2B) sales.

E-commerce acts as the intermediary for businesses to overcome the resistance caused by physical detachment. It provides an economical means of communication with the employees, suppliers and the consumers located in various places around the world. For instance, when a consumer orders for an item at Wal-Mart, then the product supplier who may be located at diverse location of the world, instantly receives the notification of the order and begin the processing of particular product ordered by customer at particular store. However, this kind of supply and distribution channels needs great and diversified distribution network, and companies like Wal-Mart has successfully implemented such systems, which helps them in effective movement of products around the globe. The use of E-commerce is not constrained to multinationals, but it can be done by Small and medium enterprises by adopting proper ...