Electronic commerce consists of carrying out all the operations inherent to conventional commerce such as buying, selling, requesting products or services, etc., through an electronic medium. This is done on two levels: business to business and business to consumer. It should be noted that electronic commerce does not compete with the usual ways of buying, it complements them.. Specifically, business-consumer electronic commerce (b2c) is one that refers to business relationships between the producer and the final consumer. The benefits of this type of trade are very great; the client does not have to move from her house, her choice is much greater, she does not need to go to the places of purchase to look for different options and to choose the most convenient one,.in addition to the ease of buying with a simple credit card number and waiting for the delivery of the products purchased at your own address. In addition, the existing risks in this type of commerce are due to the lack of habit on the part of the consumer and the lack of an electronic culture that enables massification. It is also possible that delivery times are not as expected, even so its development is encouraging.
It could well be said that b2c is a factor of change technology; It is worth mentioning that all businesses that are not capable of evolving and adopting this marketing system will not be able to stay in the middle and will be destroyed by enormous competition. Just look at the trend of companies called "dot-com", which are disappearing day by day. Another alarming point is the number of staff cuts that these companies have had. This negative trend began in late 1999 and has taken hold over time. Currently, extremely aggressive figures are shown; It is necessary to be aware, consider the situation and see e-commerce as an excellent support tool, but not as the only means of doing business.
Cuts in dot-com companies during the year 2000 # 3
As can be seen in the graph, the numbers are terrifying, even in the months when most businesses increase their sales, this type of companies increased the number of cuts in their personnel, in addition to this is the drop in sales of these companies, which should show growth. Likewise, almost 50% of dot-com companies warn that their income for 2001 will be below what they had previously projected, this is due to the slowdown in the United States economy. As everyone knows, one of the American companies that can serve as an example is Amazons, who currently has only been able to cope with its profitability, even though at the beginning it was a good business promise,which many bet on investing in shares even though it only had losses.
As previously mentioned, one of the main reasons for this negative trend is consumer mistrust and the lack of information about it, it is also due to the negative propaganda given by people who for some reason did not receive the service expected by the consumer. business, be it for time, quality, price or simple apathy.
One of the key points is security, and when talking about security, not only does it mean that transactions are safe, but that security is backed by an external agency that offers this service, which guarantees consumers that it is not just one more Web page on the Net or another dubious business looking to make money fast and easy.
When the reasons why companies called dot-com have failed have been studied, it has been concluded that not everything is due to a lack of confidence and poor investment planning (as everyone says), but due to errors of greater depth, such as not having any competitive advantage (something basic) or for not providing tangible benefits to consumers.
There has been a lot of discussion about the correct way to do e-commerce, overlapping the key points that can lead a business to have competitive advantages and benefits. Most agree that different points must be taken into account from the beginning of the project such as: Marketing and its 4P's (Product, Price, Place and Promotion), the target audience, the design, the advertising and adaptation to change as well as a CRM philosophy.
Methodology
In order to cover the objective of the article in question, it was necessary to research electronic sources on the Internet, as well as the database of the electronic library of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies, Campus Monterrey. From which information was extracted from various articles related to the subject, from which this is based.
Results and Discussion
The goals of dot-com companies must be realistic and in some way quantifiable, since if not, we would be redounding in all the aforementioned and we would be feeding false hopes about the scope and functionality of the tool.
It is obvious to mention that the Internet is a natural tool of globalization and that what is reflected in it, will reach more people and markets than those estimated or considered as consumers at any given time, so it is essential to consider this point for the "global" competition side. At the standard level, Internet users, browsers, search engines and buyers are classified into three different types; The latter are in which we are interested for the purposes of the article. It should be noted that in the attitude organizations with a presence in electronic commerce limit themselves to offering their same services to the usual market, when the fundamental thing would be to offer new services to the current market or current services to new markets,in the same way that happens in traditional commerce.
A part of the utmost importance is the design of the Web page, both in visual appearance and in its functionality. One way that facilitates this task is to put ourselves in the client's shoes when defining the design of the website. Itself, this is a basic aspect of CRM. You also have to take into account equipment and configurations, since you have to remember that the Internet is a global tool, and customers can count on a huge variety of options from the aforementioned. Another point of high importance is the content of the page, it must be able to be read in at least two languages (one must be English) so as not to limit our market, in addition to being specific with the content, since otherwise it may lead to to false expectations, that is to say, not to put a legend like »as soon as possible a person will solve….»Why doesn't the client know how long it is, 5, 10, 40 minutes or even a couple of days?
As is normal, a Web page needs promotion to be known, since if we wait for it to be visited by chance we are lost, since in the same way a person who finds it, was not exactly looking for our service; An apparently effective form of promotion is the so-called "banners" on high-flow web pages. As previously mentioned, electronic commerce is a complement to traditional ways of doing business, so it is essential to involve the elementary areas of the company, such as marketing, engineering (CRM), designers, IT and sales, and even to the finance area to see the part of cash flows and investment returns,and that these mentioned areas remain involved and follow up on the effort made in the construction of the page.
It is obvious to mention that with the expansion of electronic commerce, the consumer has become more price sensitive, since he has a high availability to compare prices and the product has a second priority "because it is the same".
For all of the above, the approach that must be taken up in these virtual businesses is a comprehensive service approach in order to be able to be distinguished among the world of competitors, and in this way promote commerce through this medium.
Conclusions
It is more than evident that technological advances such as the Internet have facilitated the way of doing things, just as the challenges and complexity of these have multiplied on a daily basis. It is obvious that under the fierce competition that currently exists between dot-com companies, only those that are well positioned and prepared to evolve along with the speed of the market and its demands will remain in the middle. It is then where the businesses are separated into those that are willing to innovate and fight for their permanence in the middle and those that are simply going to wait to see what happens with their business. As we have already seen, e-commerce is going through a growth crisis and constant hostility, since, as has always been seen, demand increases while "fashion" is around,but over time everything is placed in a midpoint (stable), where the movement of supply and demand can remain.
References
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In this research, the situation that dot-com companies are going through is analyzed, and an overview of some critical factors is shown so that they can adapt their strategies to an environment of continuous change. The cut in staff in these businesses has been exponentially increasing over time (from the end of 1999), in addition to sales showing a tangible downward trend. On the other hand, almost 50% of the companies in this field project that the income for this year (2001) is below the expectations of the companies. Analyzing the lack of success of dot-com companies, it is concluded that most of their problems were caused by a lack of trust, information, marketing, competitive advantages and consumer benefits, as well as customer orientation..Taking into account various points of view of different publications, it can be concluded that in order to be successful in this field, special attention must be paid to the following points: Knowing the public / market to which the page is directed, the design of the page, the publicity, the competitive prices, the vanguard in the products and / or services and the level of expected fulfillment Vs. real. It is more than obvious that the market was not large and robust enough to support the large number of dot-com companies that have been established in recent months. We must not forget that electronic commerce has the basis of conventional commerce (selling, buying, requesting a product and / or service) and that those who are going to survive,in this environment they are those that are capable of evolving as fast as the market demands.
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