There is often internal pressure to create an enterprisewide e-business strategy. This approach is effective only in smaller enterprises that are focused on a single buying center. While an enterprisewide strategic technical architecture should be developed, business strategies should be developed for individual BUs that are focused on the clearly defined market segments. The market segmentation should take into account all factors that affect buyer behavior and needs. Such factors would include industry, geography and culture.
Industry clearly has a major impact on buyer needs.
Geography and culture can be closely related. While some aspects of geography impact cost and logistics, in some cases geography can be used as a surrogate for culture. Cultural differences will affect how buyers wish to interact with the e-business model. Even for buyers with similar demographics and needs, separate strategies may be necessary to account for the cultural differences that are responsible for different buyer behaviors. During analysis, give equal weight to the internal and external processes.