It supplies vendors with software that provides instant calculation of the margins on a sale by tracking inventory and wholesale costs. Merchants pay a small commission on each sale in return for attracting new customers, price analysis, customer interaction and speed. A retailer with computer shopping sites estimates he can close a deal with 10 customers in five minutes instead of making an average four-minute phone call with a single customer. Small firms or home-based businesses can set up shop to compete with the largest companies by going online. The Internet is also an important tool for a company to build customer loyalty and to get the right information to the right people in a timely fashion.
Help is available for businesses of any size that want to get into e-commerce.
Varied sources offer answers to questions like ways to get started, how to set up a Web site and how to avoid investing a fortune in hardware, software and administration. For instance, IBM has special programs in small, medium and large sizes. IBM HomePage Creator is designed for firms with fewer that 50 employees. Setup is prompt and costs are low. It also allows transactions on remote and affiliated Web sites, portals, cell phones and appliances.