Corporate Web Presence Essays - E-commerce, Marketing, Internet

Corporate Web Presence Advantages and disadvantages of a Web Presence The World Wide Web is a World Wide Market. It is a new way of selling. More and more customers expect to find your product news and specifications on the web. But even on the Net, you have to advertise your product. Using Internet as a media to advertise your product is different from traditional media. Through Internet companies can be present all over the world. Using the web as an advertising tool is the cheapest way to be discovered at every time. You can also quickly change your promotional campaign, in order to gain attention that may lead the consumer to the product. Online services become so popular because they provide two major benefits to potential buyers: Convenience: Customers can order products 24 hours a day wherever they are. They don't have to sit in traffic, find a parking space, and walk through countless aisles to find and examine goods. And they don't have to drive all the way to a store, only to find out that the desired product is out of stock. Information: Customers can find reams of comparative information about companies, products, and competitors without leaving their office or home. They can focus on objective criteria such as prices, quality, performance, and availability. Customers can expect the advantage to pull the information, to be drained into detailed catalog or other information about products and services for sale that they are looking for. They do not feel forced, they are looking for the information by themselves. Nevertheless it seems that Web advertising is much more price than image oriented. Web advertising does not seem the appropriate way to advert a product. According to BMRB International (annex 1) 37% of UK Net shoppers are not ready to purchase off-line They always fear to give their account number to a company they do not know. Today a well-known brand is a real competitive advantage. BRMB International has shown that 16% of purchases has done thanks to an implicit trust of established brands. Nevertheless it does not mean that it will stay an advantage in the future. Moreover the difference with more traditional media is that customers come to you and not you to the customers. You cannot retain their attention if they feel that it does not worth it. When you wish to expand your market share trough Internet, you have to consider the specificity of your target audience. At the present time people who buy through Internet are young, daily users of computers. But there are not only people used to Internet. Because e-business is growing up (annex 2), we can assume that most people have no experience in e-business. The audience can be both good Internet users and beginners. Dealing with communication interaction Security The World Wide Web is the fastest growing part of the Internet. Increasingly, it is also the part of the Internet that is the most vulnerable to attack. For users, a secure web server is one that will safeguard any personal information (bank account number) that is received or collected. It is one that supports their privacy and will not subvert browser to download viruses or other rogue programs onto their computer For a company, a secure web server is resistant to a determined attack over the Internet or from corporate insiders. In order to increase security, you can use a system for automatically encrypting information as it is sent over the Internet and decrypting it before it is used. One of Netscape Communication's early innovations was its SSL. You can also use firewalls, which is a device that isolates an organization's internal network from the Internet at large, allowing specific connections to pass and blocking others. Marketing / Communication It is really important to get people inform of the existence of your web site. You will have to shout it from the roof tops! You can use your letterhead, your cards or your leaflets to write your web address. You can also through a TV or board advertising campaign let people know about your site existence. As Jim Sterne says: "your web site can be funny, pretty, useful, crisp and clean, but if you don't promote it, its message won't be seen". By the way you can also manage to register different key words on browsers in order to put make know your web site when people look for information in your business area. Deliveries and Payment If you use e-commerce on your website, once the buyer has searched through a