www.sharexxx.net - free books & magazines
www.sharexxx.net - free books & magazines
www.sharexxx.net - free books & magazines
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
138 Lubbe and Pather<br />
jections, inexperienced management, underestimating the costs of establishing a<br />
national brand and a lack of customer-centered focus.<br />
Wilder (1998) noted that web commerce is changing the way a lot of<br />
organizations do business, but that it is not everything that has been hoped for. The<br />
e-commerce concept had been hyped and valuations of these company’s shares<br />
had been high – all because of exaggeration and oversimplification of the real issues.<br />
Wilder (1998) provides a succinct list of e-commerce myths. The first misconception,<br />
highlighted by Wilder (1998), is that everybody thinks that it is easy (a.k.a.,<br />
the barriers have never been lower). It is easy to put up a web site, but add words<br />
such as effective, scalable, successful, and it gets a lot harder. Web infrastructure<br />
could also be a risk for older organizations. The second myth is that it is cheap.<br />
Perhaps e-commerce is cheap when compared with a full-blown enterprise<br />
resource planning implementation. The third myth is that everybody is doing it.<br />
Wilder (1998) argues that there are successful companies on the sideline of ecommerce<br />
that include chains Best Buy and Fry’s Electronics.<br />
The fourth myth highlighted by Wilder (1998) is that it is lucrative. However,<br />
there are still several examples of businesses that do better at traditional retailing,<br />
e.g., The Burlington Coat Factory has a lower sale output through its Inter<strong>net</strong><br />
presence compared to the output from its 250 stores. The next myth is that the Web<br />
levels the playing field (a.k.a., startups can instantly compete on the same footing<br />
as long-established companies). Wilder argues that companies that want to be<br />
successful at web commerce need the marketing clout, brand identity, and scale to<br />
do back-end fulfillment and customer service – and the capital. This could be a<br />
possible reason why big-physical-world competitors had bought many start-ups.<br />
Some interesting lessons came from an article in Business Inc. (2001) on the<br />
100 dumbest moments in e-commerce history. They discussed the demise of firms<br />
such as Boo.Com, Beyond.com, etc. They also noted that Inter<strong>net</strong> companies<br />
make thousands of mistakes every week. It was argued that adopters of ecommerce<br />
enterprises do not learn from these mistakes. Many of these organizations<br />
did not startup addressing the correct market or they incorrectly spent the<br />
money that was invested in them.<br />
Auger and Gallaugher (1997) comment specifically on the problems faced by<br />
small businesses: difficulty monitoring the site use; security concerns; analyzing and<br />
promoting the site; and lack of access to expertise.<br />
Being a player in the e-commerce domain means that the organization must<br />
become more responsive. It should have an agility in responding to environmental<br />
forces, which play themselves out much quicker than in brick and mortar setups.<br />
ITQuadrant (2001) refers to being able to execute e-commerce strategies rapidly.<br />
Organizations must be able to respond quickly to market changes, emerging<br />
Copyright © 2003, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written<br />
permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.