 |
 |
 |
           |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
The Internet Challenge
In spite of the increasing attention on how the Internet is changing the business landscape, many small business owners are still struggling to understand its influence. But unlike the ceaseless blinking of the home VCR, the impact of the Internet cannot be ignored. The Internet provides an all-encompassing vehicle to connect us to the information and things we want. Browse for your desires through millions of pages of shopping, communications, entertainment, and business opportunities. Unfortunately, consumers are parked at the tail end of the Internet's evolution and as these users arrive at any given website, a fierce battle to manipulate their purchasing habits is being pursued. The battle has barely begun. The argument that the Internet is a fad or that it will never replace traditional commerce is redundant. It already has. Any invention that has the capacity to accelerate the delivery of products and services into the marketplace changes the economic and cultural landscape. The Industrial Revolution did it. The telephone did it. The automobile did it. The Internet will do it too. And because each technology builds on the momentum of its predecessor, the rate of acceleration intensifies. It is this intensification that many people find so disconcerting. The Internet breeds new business processes in the same manner that the automobile gave birth to suburbia, shopping malls and salvage yards. Like parents fawning over their newborn infant, few inventors are able to envision the long-term consequences of their creations. Pioneering inventions, like human development, bring challenges and opportunities along their way to maturity. It is always risky to assume a rigid outcome. The Internet is still in its infancy-its formative years-and it's during this phase that the greatest influence can be exerted. The Internet has both the power to create or destroy economic communities. The present momentum is focused on centralizing economic activity, in other words, building colossal portals that will attract consumer activity away from traditional Main Street retailers to these centralized hubs. Amazon.com is the foremost example of this trend. While use of this technology is a natural process of business evolution, the consequences on local economies are enormous. Economic activity, whether rural, urban or national, is the organizing backbone of our community structure. Removing or reorganizing a community's economic activity has a consequential impact on the community's well being. Historic examples abound from the microeconomics of a town built on the gold rush fever to the macroeconomics of communism. In both extremes, external forces created internal disintegration. The organizing efficiency and cost effectiveness of the Internet economy will have an incomprehensible impact on both the local and global economy. And because the circulation of money is a primary activity of our society, it is essential that we actively participate in how and where that money flows. So while the momentum of Internet technology may deter intelligent participation, by not participating we relinquish our responsibility to direct its flow into the hands of a few willing advocates. Small business in particular needs to participate in its development. The Internet is a major threat to the well being of the small business community, the backbone of our economy. While some predict the demise of these traditional brick and mortar businesses, it is not the Internet that will bury them but rather their unwillingness to use Internet technology intelligently. For small businesses to profitably compete in e-commerce, it is essential that this segment of the economy is empowered and provided with the tools and resources to understand, strategize and position themselves as viable competitors. Luke Vorstermans owns and manages a successful publishing and communications company and is the Editor of Business Dynamics magazine and content contributor to IR Design.
MORE RESOURCES:
Ecommerce - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Do Your Online Brokerage Business With Zero Down If you have little or no capital but you want to do big international business; if your small business is not doing so well; or your capital is low, why don't you turn to the Internet? The Internet is the fastest and most efficient method for the newcomer and the struggling businessperson to become an international broker of goods and services.To start, you may order directories of importers; but they are not absolutely necessary: importers can be found on the business portals too. The Census and the E-Commerce Wave Understanding business and product sales can sometimes put me in a whirlwind. My job tends to get me involved with loads of different opportunities dealing with all sorts of product lines. How Measuring Key Performance Indicators Can Improve E-Commerce Strategy - Part Three The first article of this series discussed page views per session as a kind of early warning system key performance indicator (KPI) for your website. The second discussed time on site as another warning flag. Merchant Account Insider Secrets - Accept Credit Cards Online The process of learning how to accept payments on the Internet is similar to the course of figuring out how to launch a business. What at first seems puzzling and intimidating may be viewed as straightforward and easy to understand if one has the right guide or manual. Your Affiliate Web Site Is Built - Now What? When I first got my web site built, I thought I finally had a presence on-line. Wrong! I soon found out that I needed someone to host my site, and I needed a domain name. One Point Two Billion In this surreal world of the internet, anyone, even you, can put your point across to a staggering number of people in every country on the planet.From political activists to artists and writers, can now find an audience to take notice of them where they could not get much attention in their local community. Internet Merchant Accounts For Innocents Abroad If you want to sell on the internet, your need to accept credit cards. To accept credit cards, you need a merchant account, or access to one. Accept Credit Cards Online Without A Merchant Account It is often assumed if you want to accept credit cards on your website that you must have a merchant account. This is not the case. Start doing online business using B2B Portals in Six Steps I registered with a B2B site but what's next?This is a question many first time users of B2B marketplaces ask themselves. A few expect that the registration itself will bring them a number of new customers. Is It Still Possible To Make Money On The Internet? Many people are saying that the internet is dead. So is there still money to be made on the Internet?The answer is a definite YES. 7 Questions to Ask A Potential Internet Merchant Account Provider Recently I went looking for an online merchant account, with disastrous results. I made the mistake of taking information at face value and relying on the ecommerce merchant account provider's good reputation in other areas. PayPal Powered Three years ago I was doing some work for a local university helping to redesign an internal website they wanted updated and made more user friendly. When the job was done the person I was doing the job for wanted to use his school issued credit card to pay for my services. Intranet Portals - Collaboration through Team Rooms Knowledge Management for beginnersKnowledge Management (KM) can be defined simply as the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Knowledge assets are often grouped into two categories:(1) Explicit Knowledge Generally, everything and anything that can be documented, archived and codified. What You Must Know About Selling Online to Europe The European market is a multi-billion $ sector which you can not afford to ignore. If you are based within Europe, American or Canada you must be aware of the legal restrictions and requirements or face a hefty fine which could close your business. Mr and Mrs Smith Go Online, as Internet Technology Moves from Fantasy to Normality According to NOP World, 48% of all Internet users have researched or purchased financial products such as insurance and loans on the internet, or used online banking facilities. In April, NOP World had already recorded estimates of 28 million people online in Great Britain, with 13. Writing Web Pages: Get To The Meat Faster Much of my consulting work comprises writing 'Outside Opinion' reports on the sites of large companies and organizations. Sometimes I review just a few pages, sometimes fifty or more. Are You Making These E-Commerce Excuses? (part 1) A year ago, I had big plans to re-vamp my web site. I was going to publish my e-newsletter twice a month - every month, and I was going to upgrade my own e-commerce capabilities. 6 Steps to Attracting Black Customers Online by Jamila White, "The E-Commerce Diva"In the rush to keep up with technology, many African-American business owners are so busy trying to add the latest bells and whistles to their Web sites, get to the top of the search engines, and learn the latest database technology that they often forget this simple fact: people do business with other *people*, not computers. Understanding the importance of relationships is key to attracting African-American buyers online. Ecommerce Solution for the Big and Small Business First off, you need to know what an ecommerce solution is. An ecommerce solution can be defined in many ways. Online Business- What Makes It a Success! Only a few manage to sell everything under the sun over the internet. There are billions of web sites running online business, trying to outdo each other by various means.
|
 |