What Is It All About?

In recent months, the Internet has experienced immense growth in the arena of E-Commerce. E-enabled sites are capable of performing financial transactions where money is (usually) exchanged electronically for good / services bought / sold.

The very essence of bringing buyers and sellers together is what trading is all about. E-Commerce facilitates this 'bringing-together' by employing very simple models, that are coupled with ancillary functions / services like credit check on the buyer / seller, fulfillment, detailed specifications on the transaction, shipping information / quotes derived directly from the source itself, add to this escrow services, referral fees / selection, auctioning and the whole idea of selling online seems more appealing and plausible.

B2B being a very diversified field, can take in many forms and shapes. Lets consider a practical example of B2B. A mid-size business that is involved in say advertising can use B2B in various way. For back-office administration purposes, the Purchasing Department can connect to all the (wholesale) suppliers of stationery, printing paper, printing inks, printers, copiers, etc. and offer (a price) for supplies they would like to purchase. They can do this by searching through their catalog, order items and settle the financial payments on-line (if applicable) or off-line. The Seller can also check in real-time on the credit rating of the advertising firm, arrange for a local distributor to drop shipments and use a bank for escrow services. Alternatively, the Purchasing Department can also post their requirements online (on some website even their own) with an extended forecast on their possible future purchases. This would enable all the suppliers (who visit this website) to "bid" on the advertising firm's purchasing requirement thus enabling lower (and more competitive) prices.
Financial transaction between the client and the firm can be settled electronically (if both are party to it) or on a physical basis, via electronic wire transfer. Having B2B incorporation does not necessarily translate to, that all transactions must be dealt with electronically. Physical paper work and some of the existing traits of everyday business at times cannot be modeled electronically. Likewise, it is also not necessarily true that all B2B models are to work best for you. Sometimes it may very well back fire.

In any event, businesses must realize the following before trying to implement any variant of e-commerce. (a) They (themselves) must have the time (b) They must also have all the necessary ingredients (pre-requisites) and finally (c) it must be the right time. The first two items a company has control over, but the latter one, it does not. Sometimes ideas may be too advance and the timing is totally off. At other times, you may find out the timing is right but either you are lacking the ingredients or the time to actually implement it or perhaps both. While implementing e-commerce would not make you a paperless office, it would however, enable your office to have less paper, be more efficient, increase productivity (now that you have saved time). Moreover, if carefully evaluated and implemented, e-commerce can help you out in the long-run and enable you to reap the benefits of going digital.