Introduction to Uses of the Internet for Business
There are 4.5 billion internet users in the world out of a total population of 7.7 billion and in India, the number of internet users is 0.56 billion out of 1.37 billion people. Growth in internet users in India is at 11%. This statistics throws a tremendous opportunity for business to utilize internet platform to reach their end customers in online mode and accelerate their business growth. In this topic, we are going to learn about Uses of the Internet for Business.
Internet was initially developed 50 years ago by the US defense team to share information across computers. Nobody in that team would have thought that the internet will be used the world over in almost all the fields, in so many applications and in all walks of life. Internet paved the way for the evolution of new technologies, the birth of new businesses and new ways of doing business.
In this article let’s analyze the uses of the internet for Business.
Uses of Internet for Business
Here are the following uses of the internet for business mention below
1. Ecommerce
The Internet provides a perfect market place wherein customers access the website of ecommerce vendors and order the product they want to buy online and make the payment through the gateway. The goods ordered are delivered to the customers within the agreed number of days from the warehouse of the vendor. Market share ecommerce retail in India is 5.7% with sales of 38.5 billion US$ in the total retail sales of 672 billion US$ and it is growing year on year.
Ecommerce Website provides a rich experience to their customers by enabling them to
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- Browse through the products catalog and select the brand
- View the photos, texture, design and other aspects of the products closely before selection
- Compare the prices of various brands and read the reviews of the current users of the products they choose
- Order the products online and track the status of the delivery until it is delivered.
- Pay on delivery
- Return the products if the customers are not satisfied or size is not fitting etc.
- Have a feeling of shopping in a physical store.
There are renowned Ecommerce vendors like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra and Snapdeal, etc. in India. There are service vendors also in this platform like Ola, Oyo, Uber, Swiggy who offer taxi, room and food delivery services.
While Flipkart, Snapdeal are selling products of third-party vendors, Individual organizations can also develop and host their websites to sell their own products and services online.
2. Media site of a company
The Internet offers a perfect medium for businesses to reach out to their customers and the common public on their products and services offered through their website. Financial results, Performance details and other achievements of the company are also posted on this site. This media site provides good visibility, publicity, and branding to the company.
3. Social Media
The organization keeps tabs on social media sites like Facebook, Linked in to track the posting of the common public on their products, services and any other matter related to the company. The postings gathered from these social media will be used by the company to improve its product/services, correct the processes and manage situations.
4. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
The Internet enables the organization to connect with all its customers and build a strong network with its customers. New customer leads can be generated through this CRM portal and converted into prospect and order with a systematic follow-up.
This portal enables to create visibility on the marketing campaign and service programs conducted by the organization. Customer feedback and their inputs on the company are used to improve the efficiency of the operations and take the company to the next level.
5. Supplier Management
Information on supplier’s purchase orders, amendments to purchase orders, supply schedules, receipts, rejections and performance details are shared with suppliers on this site, hosted on the internet. Suppliers create shipment notice on their supplies in this site and it is visible to the company to plan their production accordingly. The Internet enables the organization to do collaborative design along with suppliers by sharing design details through this site and cut short design life cycle time.
6. Employee Productivity enhancement
- Employees are connected to their office through the internet enabling them to work from home and avoid commuting hassles.
- Employees are trained online at their own pace.
- Youtube, blogs, and content on the internet provide inputs to employees to enhance their skills.
- Tools like Skype, Slack, Trello available over the internet helps employees to collaborate with each other effectively and to clear the hurdles in the project on time.
- Project management tools hosted on the internet connect remote employees in the project review and help in managing the project efficiently.
- Productivity enhancement in employees leads to business growth and prosperity.
7. Video conferencing
Video conferencing facilities offered through the internet helps the organization to hold meetings, conferences with participants from multiple remote locations. It saves travel costs and speeds up the decision making process.
8. Market Research
Information on any products/services, market requirements, demand from various geographies for a product, competitor’s business data and other market-related data are available on the internet. These data will be useful in market research and arrive in the marketing strategy.
9. Cloud hosting
Business can host their applications in the cloud to save costs and achieve agile operations and users can access the application over the internet. Access to the cloud is made hassle-free by internet connectivity and the user feels no difference between on-premises access and cloud access.
10. Advertisement
Advertising through Youtube and other popular sites will help the business to improve its sales.
Why Business Should Use the Internet?
The business should embrace the internet to
- Build new applications using internet technology to improve efficiency, enhance revenue to the business
- Enhance the visibility and increasing sales
- Build brand value for the organization.
- Start a new line of business built on new technology offered by the internet
- Adopt new innovations offered by net in improving the existing product
- Analyze competitor’s strategy and fine-tune its business model
- Improve Employee’s productivity and stimulate business growth
- Cut down product development time by engaging with suppliers on collaborative design
- Track customers view by listening to the social media site and correct the situations
- Remain connected with customers, suppliers and other stakeholders to share information and get their feedback to improve the operations.
Conclusion
The advent of new technologies like AI and IOT on top of the Internet provides many new innovative business models for the existing business and spawn new businesses that were not thought of. The business should be agile in adopting these technologies and prosper.
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