"The Evolution Of E-Business"
The growth of the Internet in the past 10 years has been phenomenal. Companies large and small have embraced the Internet as a tool that can potentially expand their business beyond the traditional boundaries, which can give them a competitive advantage in the market place. The Internet and E-business websites seemed to many companies in the mid nineties as an elaborate, expensive and unnecessary company brochure. But the rapid evolution of e-business and Internet usage has seen their opinion dramatically change. In fact, companies now realise that they must participate in the e-business revolution to succeed in the modern and complex business environment. In 1996, Forrester Research Institute, a major E-commerce industry analyst, predicted that Business to Customer sales would be a $6.6 billion business in 2000, up from $518 million in 1996. In 2000 Business to Customer sales in the United States were actually about $18 billion, or 1% of total retail sales. In addition to that it is predicted that total e-commerce transactions in the US is predicted to reach between $3-$7 trillion in 2004 alone. Using the figures as a yardstick it is easy to see how far e-business has come and how much people have embraced it in such a short period of time.
It might be fair to say that the BBS Marketing and E-Business degree program which I am currently studying is an indirect product that was created on the back of the E-business revolution.
The initial use of the Internet as a business tool was predominantly for marketing purposes, in the form of a public information website. The functions of e-business websites have now become much more complex and elaborate. Companies now use their websites for product support, customer service and ...