e business, or e-business, is the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in support of all the activities of business. Commerce constitutes the exchange of products and services between businesses, groups and individuals and can be seen as one of the essential activities of any business. Electronic commerce focuses on the use of ICT to enable the external activities and relationships of the business with individuals, groups and other businesses. The term "e-business" was coined by IBM's marketing and Internet teams in 1996.
When organizations go online, they have to decide which e-business models best suit their goals. A business model is defined as the organization of product, serviceand information flows, and the source of revenues and benefits for suppliers and customers. The concept of e-business model is the same but used in the online presence.
With the online retail sales steadily growing, Forrester Research predicts that e-commerce sales in the US will continue to grow at a 10% compound annual growth rate through 2014. For those of you interested in another statistical tidbit : Forrester is also forecasting that online retail sales will hit $250 billion this year, that’s up from $155 billion in 2009. As a budding online entrepreneur, even capturing a small piece of that pie, would be a huge success.
How do you break into this market? What steps should you take to and start ? And most importantly, how do you do so in a manner that sets you up for success.
