Business To Business eCommerce

Business to business eCommerce is the definition of two or more business operations trading or selling products or services between themselves. This varies greatly from a Retail Sale to a consumer. A good example would be Staples selling office supplies to McDonalds Corporation. So, when we add eCommerce to the definition we are talking about two or more businesses sellign services or products electronically or over the internet as a means to conduct business.

The internet has spawned many applications that make this effort so much easier and in most cases secure. Of course, security is an ongoing challenge for all the nations of the world as hackers are constantly finding new ways into the database of records around the globe.

Business to business eCommerce allows companies to manage their business operations efficiently and effectively. They no longer have to keep stock on site for instance. Their online ordering systems can be directly connected to the Manufacturing site where the inventory is kept until ordered. This provides a better cash management position for the business reselling product made by others.

So, what about the cost of keeping the inventory on the manufacturing site? Great question and with Business to Business eCommerce even the manufacturer can benefit by establishing relationships with companies who will accept the stock on-hand and hold it for the reseller. The benefit is obvious and it's all about managing cash and keeping the assets moving in the supply chain.

Companies like Oracle and SAP have written deep applications linking vast supply chains together electronically and providing services around the reporting and analytics. Added value here is forecasting for the entire supply chain. If every movement of the asset can be managed at the cash level over time then the Business to business eCommerce partners are able to maximize their cash and lines of credit all the way to the true end customer the consumer (in most cases).

The overall investment that companies make to enhance their eCommerce capability can be quite large upfront. The payback over time, although, can be enormous if managed properly. The elimination of paperwork and the reduction of telephone calls that occur between companies is efficiency improvements that at times could be viewed as soft dollar savings not hard. But in reality everyone knows that if you reduce the human touch points and paperwork you achieve fantastic real dollar savings and productivity improvements.

Small business owners are seeking eCommerce solutions just like their big brothers and sisters. In fact, small business may thrive with the lower cost to enter the eCommerce market as they can get rolling with much lower infrastructure fees in the early stages of development. Software companies have, over the years, catered to the Large Corporate customer but with this market over sold (in some cases) the mid to low end market is a wide open field for the sales and marketing teams to build and sell solutions that are priced accordingly and provide robust eCommerce capability that rivals the Large Corporate systems. A true David and Goliath