Small Business Information Center. Com

E-Commerce Business: Is Your Company a Candidate? 

E-Commerce Business: Making the Internet Decision

Page #1

Many e-commerce businesses have found commodity or brand-name products to be the most obvious products to sell over the Internet.  Commodity products are easily recognized and customers realize what they will get, sight unseen, even if they have never heard of the manufacturer.  PC manufacturers are good examples of commodities. A  PC manufacturer can provide specifications and list the components (i.e., Intel Pentium processor, Microsoft operating system) of its PC, and the customer will understand the product’s functionality and quality regardless of who the e-commerce business is marketing the product.

Other popular e-commerce businesses sell brand-name products that instantly identify the manufacturer and quality of the product.  McDonald's and Coca-Cola are instantly recognized brand names, which are associated with a certain quality of product anywhere in the world. Books are also brand-name products that are currently popular in sales over the Internet.  Most contain both the publisher’s brand-name as well as the author’s brand-name.  Consumers going to a new web site can instantly identify and would not question the quality of a Robert Ludlum book published by Bantam. They may have concerns about the purchase or delivery process of the new e-commerce business however.

A successful e-commerce business must provide some important and recognizable utility. An important thing to remember is that if a product is easily available in the marketplace there must be some important, compelling reason for someone to want to purchase it from an e-commerce business.  An example may be a business which sells groceries.  Since grocery stores are numerous in the real world marketplace, an online business would have to provide some important features which would not be readily available at a bricks-and-mortar grocery store.  Some important advantages may include online ordering and home delivery.  Customers interested in these services may provide this type of e-commerce business a compelling market.

Many of the most successful e-commerce businesses go after unusual or specialized, niche markets.  Because the Internet has a global reach, it allows these businesses to expand way beyond the normal geographical restrictions associated with offline businesses.  Products that are not typically found in the usual marketplace are frequently found at many e-commerce businesses.  Many companies have found their online presence provides them with access to markets that would have formerly been virtually impossible to service with your typical retail store. The global reach of e-commerce businesses can be absolutely phenomenal. Now see Page #2

Some information from Anita Rosen’s The E-Commerce Question and Answer Book- A Survival Guide for Business Managers  

Web page by Paul Susic M.A. Licensed Psychologist Ph.D. Candidate CEO/President Susic Psychological Consulting P.C.