In this series so far (Introduction to eCommerce, Building a Basic Web Presence & Building an Effective Website), we've looked at how small businesses can create a presence on the web for surprisingly little effort and minimal financial outlay. According to YouGov research, commissioned by the British Chambers of Commerce and Microsoft, 82% of small businesses in the UK had a web presence of some kind at the start of 2007.
Every few months, advances in technology and fast-changing web economics make it easier and cheaper to market your business effectively and generate new sales. And the fact is, that if the Internet is - like New York's fabled Staten Island Ferry - the last great bargain, you can be sure that your competitors will already have stepped aboard.
We've already looked at the web as a tool to automatically generate sales leads and create incremental demand for your goods or services. Now, let's look at the next stage, which is to leverage the web's powerful technologies to deliver significant cost savings in the fulfilment of those orders. In other words use the web to turn your company into a true ecommerce operation in which the web is at the centre of your whole business workflow, rather than it being a marketing adjunct.
How the ecommerce model works
In this model, an order placed via the company's website, generates a job ticket, which triggers actions like ordering components from other businesses and / or delivery of inventory from warehouse storage. All stages right up to customer fulfilment and invoice generation are also tracked and monitored online. Even if a customer does not actually make an order via your website, the first action your company takes is, nonetheless, to enter that order onto a web-based system, which acts as a glue for all company databases and accounts systems.
This is where things can get more involved, and, until recently, could require significant capital expenditure on technology infrastructure. And, it goes without saying, becoming a true ecommerce company ultimately requires a companywide commitment and restructuring to place the Internet at the heart of your business.
First let's consider some examples of the most obvious and immediate benefits of this approach: by automating customer orders, you need fewer people manning phones or opening letters to take simple or repeat orders; customers can find what you have in stock automatically by browsing your site because your inventory control systems are automatically reported to your website; after sales support queries can often be solved by your website, and escalations directed to the appropriate contact listed on a directory, who can offer online messaging or email support rather than telephone support.
If your company sells media-based products and services, such as training courses, or anything with text, video, or audio, then a business capable of delivering content over the web can dramatically cut its overheads in manufacturing and distribution, and supply products near instantaneously, for a marginal cost.
Cloud computing
Increasingly, customers and business partners and suppliers prefer to use the web for buying and selling, so whether you like it or not, the Internet will probably be at the centre of your business before very long.
Ultimately, your business will need at least one person and probably more (depending on the size of your company) dedicated to IT and making sure everything works as it should. In the past you may have been faced with large bills from software developers building bespoke software packages to match your business' workflow, manage your customers, and create online shopping carts.
These days most of these functions are available in the form of software as a service (SaaS), rather than requiring the local installation of software on your computer network. The software is provided as a service over the Internet (this is often referred to as cloud computing) and is managed and updated by the service provider.
With this model, businesses do not have to pay large upfront capital expenses to set up their IT systems, as software is typically rented on a monthly basis. Another benefit with this model is the fact that it dispenses with the need to maintain and support the software with periodical updates. Best of all, these services are scalable, so you can start off with low-cost implementations that can grow with your business.
Examples of SaaS suppliers are Cisco's WebEx, which offers a suite of overlapping functions ranging from databases, customer support software, Microsoft Office-style productivity software, calendar and meeting software, order tracking, staff training and so on.
Another SaaS product aimed at the SME sector is Salesforce.com's range of customer relationship management (CRM) tools. The idea behind CRM is to use IT to coordinate an entire company's efforts to fulfilling customer requirements. The good thing about trying out CRM as a service is that you no longer need to spend a fortune on installing a CRM system, only to find that it's not right for your company.
Open source alternatives
If you're still worried about signing up for a monthly SaaS contract, there's an increasing amount of free of charge, open source alternatives. For example, a quick Google search on ‘free shopping carts' will return thousands of shopping carts that you can add to your website to at least get going on selling directly online. Also, online payment services like Paypal and Worldpay also offer free shopping carts along with a system for you to get paid online.
The open source community is providing increasingly advanced solutions such as the award-winning content management service, Joomla, which combines ease of use, with corporate level features for advanced web-based businesses.
As we've noted earlier in this series, the web's great strength is that there is always something new or a cheaper version of an existing product emerging, and there will almost certainly be something that will fit your business needs.