Do I Need E-Commerce To Be In E-Business?
Often, particularly when talking about new technology trends, phrases are used so much that we can lose track of their meanings. Take, for example, e-Commerce and e-Business. E-Commerce is the selling of goods or services over the internet. While e-Commerce falls under the umbrella of e-Business, e-Business is a much broader term. E-Business is the use of communication and information technologies to support business activities. This means many different things to many different businesses. If you think that just because your business does not have a need for e-Commerce, it doesn’t have anything to gain from e-Business, then this article is for you. Let us take a look at a few ways you can leverage technology to boost your business.
Building Relationships
A website can be an excellent way of keeping in contact with your customer base and providing value added services. For example, if you have a medical practice, you can use a website to setup an online booking service so that your patients can book and manage their appointments online. Alternately, you can use a website, email lists or RSS feeds to update your clients, business partners and any other interested party with information about what your company is doing.
Supporting Employees
Another useful thing which e-Business has to offer is the ability to provide resources to your employees. This is particularly useful if your employees spend a large amount of their time out of the office. You can use corporate websites to provide your employees with easy access to tools, client information, product catalogs, inventory lists or any other information that can help improve their ability to do their job.
Online Marketing
Online marketing is a massive industry and that is not something that is going to change any time soon. The internet provides easy access to millions of potential customers. From search engine optimization to contextual advertisements there is a multitude of ways for you to attract attention to your site. Your website is like a virtual storefront. Even if you are not actually selling anything online, it allows you to give information about your company to prospective customers and is a great way to convince them that you can provide them with what they are looking for.
Social Media
While social media is considered a form of marketing, social media is such an important tool that it deserves a section all to itself. Social networking has changed the way marketers think about advertising. A celebrity or sports icon can tell you about how good a product is till they are blue in the face, but it will never have as much impact as that product being recommended to you by a trusted friend. That is the underlying reason why social networking is such a powerful force in the marketing industry. By leveraging social media, you can drive a tremendous amount of traffic to your website for far less than it would cost to get similar results by traditional means.
E-Business is far more than just e-Commerce. Even if your company does not have a use for e-Commerce, it can definitely benefit from e-Business.
Chris Ricard is the owner of TheWeb-Factory.com, a Canadian Web Hosting Company that uses Cpanel, an easy-to-use control panel with tools for business owners to make Canadian e-commerce web hosting, business quality web hosting and even personal web hosting manageable for anyone.
