E-commerce and the Booming Internet Economy

Author: Laetitia Kilpatrick, Youth 2 Youth

With recent surveys showing the outcomes of the incredibly strong Internet economy its no wonder why so many Australian companies want a piece of the action. It seems to dot.com downturn is finally bouncing back - with small business steadily and eagerly investing in their own e-commerce exploits.

And why shouldn't small business get in on the action - e-commerce isn't only for big business. The internet is a great way to improve business systems, cut administration costs, increase revenue, and launch new products and services. With the Internet being such an attractive and easy market to penetrate and base a business idea on, its not surprising that approximately 62% of small to medium business enterprises are moving to become online businesses.

Yet there are a number of factors in the deciding equation, namely security, online finance and initial set-up cost. These things can be offset, however, by the many economical advantages - email marketing (no costly printing), ease of communication, opening up of overseas markets, regularly updateable marketing material and bridging location gaps.

Whether you integrate e-commerce into your existing business structure, create new online products and services, or launch a completely online company, the advantages of e-commerce are clear. Our advice? Research, research… it may not be for everyone! Don't just go out and get a few quotes and ideas together, do some online and media research into e-commerce trends. As we're all aware - for every e-commerce success there are bound to be some flops.

Make sure you have the business systems behind you before taking the plunge - because if your biz takes off and you can't support the growth, it will be a case of sink or swim - and most dot.com's sink!

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