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B2B E-Commerce
As we can use the term B2B E-Commerce, business-to-business refers to a broad range of inter company transactions, including wholesale trade as well as company purchases of services, resources, technology, manufactured parts and components, and capital equipment. B2B E-Commerce also includes many types of financial transactions between companies, such as reinsurance, commercial credit and electronic networks for trading bonds, securities and other financial assets. B2B E-Commerce transactions exclude those involving households, such as retail sales; inter consumer exchange, and employment. Companies in B2B E-Commerce offer innovative economic transactions. Acting as intermediaries, many B2B companies propose to design innovative transactions between a company and its many suppliers; that is, they reorganize supply chains.
B2B E-Commerce site deals primarily with other businesses, not the general public. B2B E-Commerce sites normally handle a lot more than just sales of products; they are a portal to conduct business transactions.
The benefits of B2B E-Commerce are: B2B E-Commerce can save or make your company money. Some ways companies have benefited from B2B E-Commerce include:
· Managing inventory more efficiently
· Adjusting more quickly to customer demand
· Getting products to market faster
· Cutting the cost of paperwork
· Reigning in rogue purchases
· Obtaining lower prices on some supplies
In B2B E-Commerce, you can browse your supplier's catalogue and see their inventory with current prices. Enter and send your order on their secure order form. Your supplier would receive the order exactly as you intended and can ship it promptly and, more importantly, correctly. Reducing errors and human involvement (both very costly) permits the supplier to pass their lower costs along to you.
In B2B E-Commerce you can interact with your business customer in the same way. Rather than printing large numbers of costly catalogues, put your product selection on a website and your customers can browse and order online with very little human interaction. B2B E-Commerce updates to the on-line catalogue are immediate and cost effective. Use a simple login procedure to distinguish your business customer from others.
Furthermore, B2B E-Commerce attempts to create markets that will replace intra-firm transfers of goods and services. Vertically integrated firms engage in substantial internal sales and procurement activities. B2B E-Commerce can enable outsourcing of the management of these external and internal transactions; that is, specialized intermediaries may handle many of these transactions. For companies that purchase externally, these intermediaries would substitute for many of the activities of company purchasing departments. Vertically integrated companies might reorganize to outsource production of goods and services that were previously produced internally, and again rely on intermediaries to help with procurement. The end result would be a fundamental change in the way that businesses transact with each other as well as the way in which businesses are organized.
The nature of B2B E-Commerce allows you develop databases to track all customers' orders and inquiries automatically. No more searching through reams of paper to analyze your sales. B2B E-Commerce also allows you to present your sales, credit, shipping, return and other policies as well as all the detailed product information you desire. The end result you see is your product being shipped out the door and more money in the bank.
Always remember by using B2B E-commerce to lower the costs of processing transactions, B2B E-Commerce companies in large markets may achieve cost efficiencies relative to direct exchange between buyers and sellers.
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