How E-commerce can reduce cycle time, improve employees' empowerment and facilitate customer support

E-commerce bring a lot of benefits to us, E-commerce has improved our living standard because it allowed us to conduct transaction easier than before.

In this section, i will discuss how E-commerce can helps to reduce the cycle time, improve employees' empowerment, and facilitate customer support.

I will divide the article into 3 parts:

1) How E-commerce help to reduce cycle time?

As what we have learned, E-commerce allows people to conduct the business without barriers of time and distance. Neither buyer or seller can log on to the Internet and conduct the transaction by just at a single click on the mouse. E-commerce helps us to save our time because we can purchase/track a certain product without travel to a physical outlets. Less time is spent in resolving invoice and order discrepancies if we are using e-commerce. Some of the software which is used to support E-commerce can help to improve document preparation process, order filling, delivery, and etc.

When we compare with traditional method and E-commerce method, the biggest difference between both method is the time of the operation. E-commerce operates 24 hours per day and it allow buyers to make an order other than during office hour. The order filling is continuously processing in 365 days.


2)Improve Employees' Empowerment

An E-commerce company such as dell, has developed a central database around the world and it allowed its employees to obtain the information from difference places. A well functioned software can enhance the performances of employees because it give more power to the employees to handle over their customers' information. Customer's details is accessible by employees and it allowed them to provide a better customer service.

Another example from Dell: Employees is assigned to serve the customer at one-on-one basis. This method allow employee to understand better over their customers needs/desire and try to satisfy their customers.


3)Facilitate Customer Support

The E-commerce applications such as CRM, consulting services, mobile CRM, discussion list, E-mail Newsletters, well designed web site can help to facilitate the customer support.

The CRM system can helps to increase customers' satisfaction. Well designed web page provide accurate/relevance information to customers and it helps to reduce their doubts and problems. The latest update can be obtained immediately compare to traditional method. Customer can log on to the forum to search for more opinions from others forumers before they make a decision. FAQ is provide within the website to helps to minimize the uncertainty and increase the feeling of secure.

There are many applications can enhance the customer support, these applications has improved our living standard and it bring the feel convenience.

In facts, E-commerce brings a lot of benefits to us rather than the 3 benefits which is discussed at above.

References :

-http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/E-commerce_-_Overview_-_Advantages
-http://www.ecommerceprogram.com/ecommerce/benefits-of-ecommerce.asp
-http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/ECommerce_-_Benefits
-http://www.bizfab.com/ecommercebenefits.html
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_commerce
-http://www.ecommerceoptimization.com/ecommerce-introduction/


Prepared by: Teo Muh Chow