Creative E-com

E-commerce forces you to become efficient and to provide value; if you don't, your failure will be swift. The new business paradigm that has resulted from B2B e-commerce technology has a tendency to weed out low-value players quickly, simply because the technology has created a more level, and infinitely larger playing field. If you participate in an open electronic venue, then you will undergo intense scrutiny. If someone else is selling the same product for a half cent lower, then your buyers will know about it immediately.

Many electronic venues have feedback mechanisms as well.eBay is perhaps the best-known example of this. When somebody buys something on eBay, they have an opportunity to rate the seller and make comments. These comments are readily accessible to any other potential buyer, who may review them before making a purchase. This sort of mechanism keeps you honest, but it also is very unforgiving. Botching two or three deals could greatly diminish your chances of selling much there ever again.

Failure cause in today's electronic economy are a lot different than they used to be, and long-standing relationships may fall apart in the face of intense scrutiny and heightened competition. Some common factors involved in failed B2B e-commerce initiatives include:

• Relying on long-term relationships -- Getting comfortable and assuming that a business relationship, because it has existed for years, will continue to exist. Long-term business relationships are a thing of the past in the electronic world, and the ability to see everyone's wares at once makes us fickle.
• Focusing too much on the "e" in "e-commerce" -- Customers still need personal attention; this is why successful e-businesses have multiple channels of communication, not just the Web. The whole concept of e-commerce is so electronic, there is a natural tendency to overlook the actual human customer at the other end of the transaction.
• Vertical integration -- Trying to do everything under one roof. More companies are outsourcing technical support, fulfillment, security management, Web hosting, and almost everything that doesn't have to do with their core businesses. Companies that do this are nimble and efficient, and they run rings around huge, monolithic companies that try to bring everything inside.
• Attempting to hoard information -- You can't keep secrets in an electronic marketplace. Whereas a traditional company may have flourished by keeping information on a "need to know" basis, this no longer works. Information is the fuel of the new economy, and you, as a business participating in B2B e-commerce, have to kick in your share.