Networked Supply Chain
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One of the catch phrases of the electronic commerce gurus is "end-to-end" commerce. The idea is that ecommerce involves raw material producers, manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and customers. Throw in the media and financial institutions to complete the mix. If ebusiness is about anything, it's about saving money online. One of the quickest ways to do this is to find alternative suppliers or get better services and prices from current ones. |
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Trace Your Supply Chain Online
Check out the websites of your suppliers, distributors, banker, lawyer and accountants. Do they provide any special services to online customers? What kind of customer support do they offer via the web or email?
While you are checking out the websites of companies that you already have a relationship with, keep a lookout for other online companies that might offer even better service or prices.
Comparison Shopping Made Easy
Use the Net to find familiar products at bargain prices.
- Decide on a product category and use Shopping.com to find competitive prices. Once a product category is selected the results can be sorted by: stores, popularity, price, rating, brand, and selected features.
Shopping Online
The process of buying products and services online appears to be pretty easy from the buyer's perspective. Even when the company is located in another country buying online via a credit card is amazingly fast and simple. When the product is a digital one, software or multi-media, the complete transaction from purchase to fulfillment can take place in minutes.
How "big-spender" bought software from Switzerland via a Minneapolis firm:
- Big-spender searches a few Internet software sites looking for a replacement text editor for a Win95 PC.
- One of the products that gets favorable reviews is Notetab Pro.
- Big-spender visits the company's website www.notetab.ch and downloads a trial version of the program. Note: The .ch means that the company is located in Switzerland.
- The trial version is quite good and well worth the $9.95 price. Big-spender decides to buy the program and returns to the company website to find out how to do it.
- Amazingly, the company website sends the big-spender to a site located a few miles from home in Minneapolis, Digital River.
- Digital River securely collects name, mail and email addresses, and credit card information. It then verifies the credit card number and completes the transaction; provides a web printable invoice; and sends an email invoice. The customer can then download an unrestricted version of the program.
Initial concerns about dealing with a company in Switzerland and an unfamiliar currency were quickly forgotten. The entire process took less than five minutes. Digital River even collected $.65 for Minnesota sales tax.
The New Middlemen: Digital River
This company is a good representative of the new business arrangements that are driving electronic commerce on the Internet. It was founded in 1994 as a joint venture with Fujitsu Limited and a Minneapolis entrepreneur. Today, it serves over a thousand businesses, both large and small.
The company describes itself as "a provider of electronic commerce outsourcing solutions to software publishers and online retailers." Digital River specializes in providing eCommerce services to small and large businesses.
