Q. In your view, what does e-commerce
include?
A. Broadly defined, electronic commerce encompasses all kinds of
commercial transactions that are concluded over an electronic
medium, mostly the Internet.
E-commerce covers both business-to-consumer and
business-to-business transactions, and is not limited to the
purchase of a product. It includes all information or services that
a company may offer to its customers over the Net, from
pre-purchase information to after-sale service and
support.
E-commerce can have a very profound impact on corporate strategy
because it changes the way a company interacts with its customers,
but also its suppliers, partners, employees or investors.
E-commerce actors, competition, rules and market-space, as well as
evolution speed, are different from the traditional company
operating environments. Firms need to adapt and integrate the Net
into their business strategy.
Q. What are your recommendations for businesses in
developing countries that want to increase their export potential
using the Internet?
A. Build your web site to serve your customers. Consider how
these customers will know about or find your site. Being on the web
is one thing, but it is not sufficient anymore. To be successful,
one must offer a useful on-line service, but also ensure its
visibility.
The usefulness of a web site is directly related to its targets
and objectives. If a web site features a product for sale, it must
present the product, along with the information the customer needs
to evaluate the offer, trust the manufacturer, understand the
buying process and eventually buy the product either on-line or by
more classical means.
Visibility is essential for web sites. Visibility relates to the
site name and to its presence in the major search engines, indexes
and reference sites. Visibility depends on the content of the site,
and one should use all relevant techniques to improve visibility
(text, titles, keywords, etc.).
The Internet definitely offers an opportunity for developing
countries. It can open new markets for their businesses, especially
for exporters which can bypass their traditional market limits, by
presenting their products on the web and beginning to build new
commercial relationships over the Internet.
For more information about Internet trends in developing
countries, readers may wish to view the NUA Internet Surveys by
geographic area (http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?)
.
A growing number of magazines and newspapers in developing
countries are also creating web sites. See Webdo (http://www.webdo.ch/base/presse.web),
which provides media lists by region.
Arnaud Dufour is an Internet consultant based in Lausanne,
Switzerland. He may be contacted at arnaud.dufour@alphis.com