Categories of Business Value | Electronic Commerce (Charles River Media Networking/Security)

An e-commerce solution can deliver business value benefits in the following categories, which correspond to Web site business objectives.

Improved Customer Communications

On its site, a company needs to be able to leverage all relevant information in order to:

Cross-sell products and services.
Make personalized, effective recommendations on products and services.
Plan promotions and marketing campaigns.
Provide targeted information based on customer profiles^[1].

Realizing the preceding four goals lets your business take full advantage of one-to-one personalization. Customer loyalty depends on the quality of the buying experience. So, anything you can do to enhance that experience will translate into better business value. The goal is to maximize the value from each customer contact and to deliver highly personalized interactions to all customers through real-time, as well as offline, channels. The value of personalized interaction was underlined by a survey conducted by Jupiter Research, which found that the personalized service offered by 36 surveyed e-commerce sites boosted new customers by 48% in the first year and increased revenues by 51%.

Leading-edge solutions enable you to capture detailed information about individual customers, then analyze the information to make better business decisions, customize responses, and maximize the effectiveness of your communications by tailoring your interactions with specific users. By gaining in-depth knowledge of your customers, you can personalize communications to better serve their needs, develop trust, and build profitable long-term relationships.

Streamlined Business Processes

Organizations significantly increase their Web-based server site’s business value by automating order processing and fulfillment. Reducing paper-based transactions and improving organizational efficiency and effectiveness can lower costs. In addition, organizations can leverage the Web and wireless infrastructure to provide automated service (and reduce phone calls to employees) throughout the transaction process.

To facilitate automation, you can easily integrate e-business solutions with existing applications and systems, and access information contained in legacy systems. Multiple Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) solutions are available from leading commerce portal providers to integrate popular applications from such vendors as SAP and Siebel Systems. Such integration enables you to streamline processes, exchange information, and conduct business more efficiently.

For sites that offer a multitude of products, targeting is essential. With information from customers, you can narrow down the most appropriate suggestions. The ability to deliver a simple, relevant, and consistent user experience is key to enhancing Web-based servers and the online experience and maximizing selling opportunities.

Improved Service Efficiencies and Customer Satisfaction

Early analysis of the value of e-business focused largely on transaction savings as a means to justify Web-based server site investments. Personalized service delivered via the Web is highly effective in improving customer satisfaction and retention rates, thereby increasing the lifetime value of a customer.

In addition, providing customer self-service via a Web-based server site enhances business value by reducing staffing costs for service and support employees. Many companies set a goal of handling 80% to 90% of customer care interactions via personalized self-service. Enabling customer self-service with access to real-time product availability, order status, and customer account information will improve customer satisfaction while lowering operational costs.

An additional step to improving a site’s business value is to combine site data with other business data such as call center information. Doing so enables you to identify, for example, customers who have the following profile—heavy-volume call center user, large-volume offline purchaser, and online user. The goal is then to move such customers more online, thereby reducing their dependency on high-cost call center operations and lowering transaction costs.

Meeting Customer Needs and Wants

Analyzing customers’ online behavior, trends, and patterns, and building a comprehensive customer database can lead to a clearer understanding of how to attract new customers and retain existing ones. This knowledge can improve a site’s business value when used to design marketing campaigns, more precisely target offerings, and increase customer loyalty and lifetime customer value. Leading e-commerce solutions enable comprehensive profiling of site visitors, based on observed (click stream), stated (registration), and implicit (purchase) behavior. These solutions help you acquire and analyze customer information, so you can take advantage of mass personalization capabilities to communicate and market your products more effectively. This can help increase your Web-based server site revenues by enhancing your ability to close sales through targeted, real-time promotions. It also allows you to merchandise your products more effectively, and reduce the time and effort required to market on the Web.

Considering the importance of customer convenience in today’s world of information overload, a site must be efficient and easy-to-use. Tailoring product information, promotions, and messages to each customer’s needs will enable more productive site visits. That can lead to more satisfied users and a significant increase in repeat business. Additionally, search capabilities that enable consumers to go directly to products that interest them will help improve business value via increased ratio of transactions to browser visits. Customer satisfaction and repeat business are crucial for improving the business value of your Web-based server site.