1.

INTRODUCTION
Business-to-Business e-Commerce or B2B e-Commerce is a term that is used for

electronic market transactions between business organisations or companies. It covers a broad

spectrum of applications that enables an enterprise or business to form electronic relationship
with its distributors, resellers, suppliers and other partners.
B2B e-Commerce offers a range of benefits for buyers and sellers:

Lower procurement and distribution costs as it eliminates the need for a mediator /

middleman.
With advancement in technology, electronic marketing is able to reach farther and wider

markets for greater access to buyers and sellers locally and globally.
Quicker reaction to customer inquiries.
Reduced capital commitment and less overproduction.
Error elimination throughout the ordering and production process.
Quality improvements in customer-service.
Worldwide access to up-to-date product information.
The overall volume of B2B (Business-to-Business) transactions is much higher than the

volume of B2C transactions. The primary reason for this is that in a typical supply chain there
will be many B2B transactions involving sub components or raw materials, and only one B2C
transaction, specifically sale of the finished product to the end customer. For example, an
automobile manufacturer makes several B2B transactions such as buying tires, glass for
windscreens, and rubber hoses for its vehicles. The final transaction, a finished vehicle sold to
the consumer, is a single (B2C) transaction.
B2B is also used in the context of communication and collaboration. Many businesses are
now using social media to connect with their consumers (B2C); however, they are now using
similar tools within the business so employees can connect with one another. When
communication is taking place amongst employees, this can be referred to as "B2B"
communication.

2.0

THE SELECTED B2B ORGANISATION

ZEON Computer (M) Sdn Bhd (ZEON Computer) has made its first debut in the era of

Information Technology when its first outlet is established in 2004. Within a year, ZEON
Computer has expanded its operation to second outlet in order to provide value added service to
our value customers.
ZEON Computer comprises of three departments; Human Resource, Marketing and
Sales, and Management. The Human Resource department will optimize and allocate company
resources to ensure business operations are running in a cost-effective manner.
The Marketing and Sales department will strategize its marketing campaign in all
possible way to establish the company position in the marketplace. The company's target market
includes the corporate, retail and home-user. The management strategizes and coordinates the
functional departments for optimal results.
At Zeon Computer, we are ready to assist you to explore to the world of Technology.
With the advancement of Technology, we provide quality hardware and software to you.
They are committed to fast response and are able to provide a one stop service centre to
suit your business namely from managed services to utility computing and also they cater to
whatever that you need in the string of Technology. They are able to provide multivendor support
to you with a single call to their service centre.
The vision of ZEON Computer is to become the premier IT solution provider and the
leading platform in the northern region, nationwide and the region. Our mission is to become one
of the leading premier provider in IT industry in Northern region, nationwide and internationally.
Our aim is to provide quality IT products, software and technical support to our customers. At
Zeon Computer, we continue to grow our company in a profitable and sound financial position
and strive to provide more career opportunities to our community in future.

3.0

THE ADVANTAGES OF E-COMMERCE

E-Commerce advantages can be broadly classified in three major categories:

Advantages to Organizations
Advantages to Consumers
Advantages to Society

Advantages to Organizations

Using E-Commerce, organization can expand their market to national and

international markets with minimum capital investment. An organization can
easily locate more customers, best suppliers and suitable business partners across

the globe.
E-Commerce helps organization to reduce the cost to create process, distribute,

retrieve and manage the paper based information by digitizing the information.
E-commerce improves the brand image of the company.
E-commerce helps organization to provide better customer services.
E-Commerce helps to simplify the business processes and make them faster and

efficient.
E-Commerce reduces paper work a lot.
E-Commerce increased the productivity of the organization. It supports "pull"
type supply management. In "pull" type supply management, a business process
starts when a request comes from a customer and it uses just-in-time
manufacturing way.

Advantages to Customers

24x7 support. Customer can do transactions for the product or enquiry about any
product/services provided by a company any time, anywhere from any location.

Here 24x7 refers to 24 hours of each seven days of a week.

E-Commerce application provides user more options and quicker delivery of

products.
E-Commerce application provides user more options to compare and select the
cheaper and better option.

A customer can put review comments about a product and can see what others are

buying or see the review comments of other customers before making a final buy.
E-Commerce provides option of virtual auctions.
Readily available information. A customer can see the relevant detailed

information within seconds rather than waiting for days or weeks.

E-Commerce increases competition among the organizations and as result
organizations provides substantial discounts to customers.

Advantages to Society

Customers need not to travel to shop a product thus less traffic on road and low

air pollution.
E-Commerce helps reducing cost of products so less affluent people can also

afford the products.

E-Commerce has enabled access to services and products to rural areas as well

which are otherwise not available to them.

E-Commerce helps government to deliver public services like health care,
education, social services at reduced cost and in improved way.

4.0

ANALYSIS OF THE SELECTED B2B ORGANISATION

4.1
Web Site Design (Appearance)
Central to this inquiry is the need for organizations to measure and determine the
impact of Web-based system on B2B processes and the value to the enterprise. Knowing
the value of Web-based systems is a necessary first step to motivate users to adopt the
system. In the current economic environment, when organizations are critically
evaluating each of their investment, Web-based B2B systems are no exception. But, as IT
4

evolves from a mere productivity tool to a more pervasive and strategic business tool, the
measurement of its value to an organization has become more challenging. Most evidence
of Web benefits at organizational level are anecdotal and there are very few systematic
studies that look at the value from organizations perspective. Moreover, the nature of the
Web creates impacts beyond the traditional organizational boundaries, requiring the
cooperation of business partners and, in some cases, even competitors within the industry.
Thus, there is a need for a better framework to determine the value of the Web for an
organization.
A significant proportion of organizational resources are devoted to managing
interorganizational processes, such as procurement of goods and services from other
companies, collaboration for product development, and financial transactions between
companies. Among these, the procurement of goods and services, called business-to
business (B2B) procurement, involves the largest cost for an enterprise, with many
organizations spending 50% to 60% of their revenues on goods and services. Yet,
information technology applications have focused mostly on more structured processes,
such as manufacturing, leaving most procurement processes inefficient and ineffective.
Procurement usually covers two types of purchases direct and indirect. Direct purchases
involve materials, such as raw materials and components, which go into the finished
products sold to the customer. Indirect purchases, on the other hand, involve goods and
services that are not part of the finished product, but support the internal business
activities. Examples of such items are computers, office equipment, operating supplies
and office supplies. Indirect procurement involves a wide variety of items of different
complexities, and caters to a range of internal needs and preferences. In addition, unlike
direct items which are managed through company-wide standards and controls, indirect
purchases are highly decentralized and have multiple and, in many cases, incompatible
applications within the same organization. Thus, managing indirect procurement through
traditional IT systems has been a major challenge to IS professionals.
Many businesses have websites, but not every one of these sites is optimized to
handle the duties of an active ecommerce site. In order to effectively deal with the needs
of your customers, an ecommerce site must make use of a number of tools. Ecommerce

website design will enable companies to utilize a number of services to improve their
sales such as:
Virtual storefronts The first step toward generating new conversions is to
display your goods in a manner that will appeal to your clients. Virtual storefronts act as
digital catalogues which allow visitors to browse the sites inventory. In addition to visual
appeal, these storefronts must be optimized and organized in order to receive return
business from your clients.
Digital shopping carts Shopping carts are one of the most essential elements of
an ecommerce website. Many online customers will abandon their orders at the shopping
cart phase before they are able to complete their purchases. FocusMX will use proven
ecommerce website design techniques to decrease the chances of customers abandoning
their purchases before check-out.
Secure online payment methods Trust is one of the most effective elements in an
ecommerce website design. Including a safe method of payment takes the risk out of
shopping on your site, making it easier for clients to follow through with their purchases.
Without a secure payment method, clients will be far less likely to purchase your
products or services.
Online marketing You may have a top-notch ecommerce site, but it wont be
any use if your clients cant find it. Using tools like SEO and PPC, we will help your
website reach the top of the search engine results pages in order to increase your brand
visibility. Just as you must market a physical business, it is just as important to promote
your brand online. As your web-presence grows stronger, your chances for increased
conversion rate and ROI will grow as well.
Incorporating an online element to your business is a step in the right direction,
but you need to accompany your online business with techniques that are proven to drive
sales and increase visitor conversions. With an optimized ecommerce website design,
your organization will be better equipped to handle the issues that arise from dealing in
business online. From the intricacies of web-marketing to the specifics of design and
implementation, FocusMX provides proven solutions for your ecommerce website design
needs.

4.2

Electronic Payment
E-Commerce or Electronics Commerce sites use electronic payment where

electronic payment refers to paperless monetary transactions. Electronic payment has

revolutionized the business processing by reducing paper work, transaction costs, labour
cost. Being user friendly and less time consuming than manual processing, helps business
organization to expand its market reach / expansion. Some of the modes of electronic
payments are following.

Credit Card

Debit Card

Smart Card

E-Money

Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT)

Credit Card
Payment using credit card is one of most common mode of electronic payment.
Credit card is small plastic card with a unique number attached with an account. It has
also a magnetic strip embedded in it which is used to read credit card via card readers.
When a customer purchases a product via credit card, credit card issuer bank pays on
behalf of the customer and customer has a certain time period after which he/she can pay
the credit card bill. It is usually credit card monthly payment cycle. Following are the
actors in the credit card system.

The card holder - Customer

The merchant - seller of product who can accept credit card payments.

The card issuer bank - card holder's bank

The acquirer bank - the merchant's bank

The card brand - for example , visa or mastercard.

Credit card payment process

Step

Description

Step 1

Bank issues and activates a credit card to customer on his/her request.

Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
Step 6

Customer presents credit card information to merchant site or to

merchant from whom he/she want to purchase a product/service.
Merchant validates customer's identity by asking for approval from
card brand company.
Card brand company authenticates the credit card and paid the
transaction by credit. Merchant keeps the sales slip.
Merchant submits the sales slip to acquirer banks and gets the service
chargers paid to him/her.
Acquirer bank requests the card brand company to clear the credit
amount and gets the payment.
Now card brand company asks to clear amount from the issuer bank
and amount gets transferred to card brand company.

Debit Card
Debit card, like credit card is a small plastic card with a unique number mapped
with the bank account number. It is required to have a bank account before getting a debit
card from the bank. The major difference between debit card and credit card is that in
case of payment through debit card, amount gets deducted from card's bank account
8

immidiately and there should be sufficient balance in bank account for the transaction to
get completed. Whereas in case of credit card there is no such compulsion.
Debit cards free customer to carry cash, cheques and even merchants accepts
debit card more readily. Having restriction on amount being in bank account also helps
customer to keep a check on his/her spendings.
Smart Card
Smart card is again similar to credit card and debit card in apperance but it has a
small microprocessor chip embedded in it. It has the capacity to store customer work
related/personal information. Smart card is also used to store money which is reduced as
per usage.
Smart card can be accessed only using a PIN of customer. Smart cards are secure
as they stores information in encrypted format and are less expensive/provides faster
processing. Mondex and Visa Cash cards are examples of smart cards.

E-Money
E-Money transactions refers to situation where payment is done over the network
and amount gets transferred from one financial body to another financial body without
any involvement of a middleman. E-money transactions are faster, convenient and saves
a lot of time.
Online payments done via credit card, debit card or smart card are examples of emoney transactions. Another popular example is e-cash. In case of e-cash, both customer
and merchant both have to sign up with the bank or company issuing e-cash.

Electronic Fund Transfer

It is a very popular electronic payment method to transfer money from one bank
account to another bank account. Accounts can be in same bank or different bank. Fund
transfer can be done using ATM (Automated Teller Machine) or using computer.
Now a day, internet based EFT is getting popularity. In this case, customer uses
website provided by the bank. Customer logins to the bank's website and registers
another bank account. He/she then places a request to transfer certain amount to that
account. Customer's bank transfers amount to other account if it is in same bank
otherwise transfer request is forwarded to ACH (Automated Clearing House) to transfer
amount to other account and amount is deducted from customer's account. Once amount
is transferred to other account, customer is notified of the fund transfer by the bank.

4.3

Business Model
Business - to - Business (B2B)
Website following B2B business model sells its product to an intermediate buyer

who then sells the product to the final customer. As an example, a wholesaler places an
order from a company's website and after receiving the consignment, sells the end
product to final customer who comes to buy the product at wholesaler's retail outlet.
Business-to-business ecommerce sites, also known as B2B, give businesses the
opportunity sell products to other businesses online. Purveyors of products such as
computer systems and office supplies allow small business owners to make purchases
without having to visit a physical location. This can save them time and perhaps even
money, such as when they receive discounts for buying through a website.

10

4.4

Global Reach
For organizations requiring business-to-business (or B2B) solutions, Global

Reach can architect and build a custom e-commerce application that fully integrates with
your companys management and accounting systems. Common features include store
and product management, cross-merchandising capabilities, real-time interface with
shipping vendors, order fulfillment and payment processing, and sales tax calculations.
Without the limitations of physical boundaries, our B2B clients are able to reach a
wider target audience and develop niches within the online community. Furthermore,
their online commercial presence is enabling them to expand into untapped markets
resulting in increased market share and brand recognition.
11

5.0

RECOMMENDATIONS TO IMPROVE
Since e-commerce has a great potential to modify the business environment, all

participants in the markets are likely to be affected by these technology, regardless of whether
they are proactive about adoption or not. The impact on B2B e-commerce technology need to be
analyzed on a case specific basis for future research. More research are needed in the area of ecommerce, particularly on B2B e-commerce adoption between businesses. Testing of this
framework, and identification of further technology adoption issues, would be useful for
practitioners and researchers alike.
As Zeon Computer begin to consider how to improve their B2B e-commerce site, the
good news is that nearly all the best features of B2C commerce have applications in B2B
commerce.
By carefully identifying and integrating targeted B2C features into your e-commerce
platform, you can dramatically enhance customer experiences and achieve bottom line gains by
leveraging your buyers' familiarity with common site functions.
Some B2C functions apply to entire marketplace and should be considered by B2B
brands across all industries and sectors:

12

Personalized content. Consumer retailers excel at using dynamic, personalized content

to meet specific customer needs. Now a hallmark of the online consumer experience,
personalization features, such as customized product recommendations, best-seller lists,
and wish-listing, save time for buyers and give B2B brands the opportunity to create

personal connections with procurers.

Better search capabilities. Expansive product catalogs make robust search capabilities
an e-commerce essential. In the consumer market, online retailers give consumers the
ability to perform accurate searches across a range of product dimensions. B2B ecommerce platforms need to provide the same level of convenience, allowing customers
to go beyond basic SKU-based searches and locate items according to product details,

price, and availability.

Meaningful buying/browsing experiences. Digital commerce has come a long way
since the early days, when B2B e-commerce sites were little more than glorified orderentry systems. To remain competitive, your site needs to be flexible enough to
accommodate the needs of both browsers (visitors who want to spend hours researching
and viewing products) and buyers (customers who know exactly what they want to

purchase).
Strong content management. B2C e-commerce platforms have evolved to enable
retailers to seamlessly manage large volumes of information for consumers. The need for
strong content management is even more acute in the B2B sector, where product catalogs
are often characterized by mind-numbing quantities of items sorted by precise product

specifications.
Seller analytics. B2B brands have done a decent job equipping their sites with buyer
analytics. With a few clicks, most B2B buyers can view order histories, invoices, and
other information that is important to their operations. As for seller analytics, however,
many B2B sites lag behind online retailers. To improve online performance, consider
incorporating seller analytics into your e-commerce platform as a way to improve
visibility to key customer behaviors.

13

6.0

SUMMARY
Its certainly no secret that more and more business is being conducted online each day.

Consumers expect products and services to be instantly available, comparable and configurable
to meet their needs online. The Web provides consumers with the instant results and fulfillment
they demand from their shopping experience. But e-commerce is not strictly for B2C purchases;
B2B customers have come to expect the same speed and simplicity associated with buying
online.
At its core, e-commerce translates into instantly available, comparable and configurable
products and services. With price quotes, contract renewals and comparisons available at the
business users fingertips, B2B e-commerce opens up new opportunities for companies to initiate
the buying process. Business consumers no longer need to be waited on, but can instead research
the products and services they require information which is also immediately available to the
sales team.
Adding e-commerce functionality can increase new sales opportunities, but current
customers can also benefit. B2B e-commerce allows for customized profiles, which upon logging
14

in, provide customers with recommended products, click-of-a-button re-ordering, and contract
renewal options. With easy-to-update admin capabilities, pricing and discounts stay connected
with customer profiles to ensure customers keep coming back.
If you want your customers to buy, you need to understand what they need and how your
products and services can address those needs. Thats pretty basic. If they are buying online, you
can track how they shop, what they look at, and what they ultimately buy. By understanding their
needs and their shopping patterns, you learn to be more successful with your B2B sales.
Make sure your platform is easy to update and supports the latest technologies. Look for
a vendor with a solid track record of delivering innovation and customer satisfaction. The market
WILL change make sure you can change with it to stay on top.

REFERENCES

Dr. Temporal, P. (2005): B2B BrandingA Guide to Successful Business-to-Business Brands,

International Enterprise Singapore
Huczynski, A. et al. (2001): Organisational Behaviour 4th Edition, Harlow
Kaplan, S. and M. Sawhney, (2000), E-Hubs: The New B2B Marketplaces, Harvard
Business Review, May-June, pp. 97-103.
Luckling-Reiley, D. and D.F. Spulber, (2001), Business-to-Business Electronic Commerce,
Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 15 (1), Winter, pp. 55-68. 17.

15

Mahadevan, B., (2000), Business Models for Internet-Based E-Commerce: An Anatomy,

California Management Review, Vol. 42 (4), Summer, pp. 55-69.
Phillips, C. and M. Meeker, (2000), The B2B Internet Report: Collaborative Commerce,
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Report, April, Copyright 2000 Morgan Stanley Dean Witter
& Co.
Prashant Kasera J. (2006): 'World of B2B' 1st Edition, India.
Yu, H. et al, 2002. Electronic payment systems: an analysis and comparison of types,
Technology in Society, Vol. 24, No.3, pp. 331347.

16