Business transformation in electronic commerce:

Abstract

The omnipresent nature of the Internet and the WWW has been a defining characteristic of the `new world' of electronic commerce. The impact of electronic commerce spans national boundaries and sectoral differences. While experts estimate that the number of users of the Internet will grow to 550 million, or 10 per cent of the world's population, by the year 2000, little is known of the degree to which business models have been transformed by the Internet across different types of businesses. This paper takes a step in this direction by studying how strategic marketing, defined by the four Ps — Product, Price, Promotion and Placement, and Customer Relationship are getting transformed in the on-line world of electronic commerce across sectors and geographic regions. Our conclusions are drawn from the results of a survey of 167 organisations chosen from a number of sectors across the globe.