MEANING OF E-BUSINESS

Any business or commercial transaction that takes place across the internet is termed as ‘E-Business’. Here trade, commerce and other activities related to a business takes place by using computer networks. The business gets the privilege to have the opportunity to make the whole world as its customers and to get its procurement too by using the online medium as e-business has the chance to get accessed by the whole world. The business which earlier used to have its presence in a city only and could only sell their goods in that particular area, now having the global market access, thanks to the internet.

The business interacts with its customers and suppliers through this virtual world called internet and try to solve their issues by this medium only. E-business is being popularized more and more day-by-day because of its arena and wide base it provides for the business.

E-BUSINESS  V.  E-COMMERCE

• People always think that e-business and e-commerce are the different names of the same thing, that’s why both used interchangeably. But in reality, it’s not the case, both are different from each other in a certain way. E-commerce is a part of e-business, all e-commerce are e-business, but all e-business are not e-commerce. E-commerce is a subset of e-business.
• E-commerce simply means buying and selling online, while e- business comprises of all business transacted online.    
• Inventory management comes under e-business if it is conducted online. If a company builds and sells an online system which tracks inventory and also prompts alerts is a type of e-business.
• E-business in some cases is more so the same like standard business, it is just the way of conducting the business makes the difference between the both.Many processes in e-business might be dealt in-house by using the network of the firm.
• E-commerce on the other hand involves basically placing of orders and online payments. E-commerce sales can have all elements of  a sale, from ordering the product to making payment of it and getting it delivered or it can consist of one part of all these processes involved.
• There are multiple types of e-commerce:-

1. Business-to-Consumer (B2C):- This is a type of e-commerce in which business sells goods as well as services to its customers online through their websites.
2. Business-to-Business (B2B):- In this type of e-commerce, the goods and services are sold between the business using the online platforms or portals.
3. Consumer-to-Business (C2B):- In this, consumers creates an asset or offer products or services to the business. Customer reviews, blogger sharing about the company, customer giving some useful idea for development of a new product or to bring an enhancement in an existing product etc are the examples of C2B e-commerce.
4. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C):- This is relatively a platform which is giving the consumers an advancement to sell off the products which they are not really using and that comes in use of the person who is in the need of that product. So,here in this type, customer sells its goods or services to other customer by using a third-party platform or business. Olx, eBay are the few third-party platforms which facilitate it.

• E-commerce is basically related to commercial activities and transactions taking place online.Websites and apps play the main role in it. Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra are a few popular e-commerce sites. E-commerce involves even paying different types of taxes online, Online accounting software, customer support provided online and many more commercial transactions.
• E-commerce consists of limited transactions which is not the case with the e-business. In e-business, transactions are not limited.
• E-business consists of all kinds of business activities and transactions happening online. From procuring raw materials or buying goods to supplying and selling products and making payments online. All these come under the category of e-business. Even customer education, supply chain management, e-mail marketing and setting up of online store comes under this.
• Only a website is required for the e-commerce, but e-business requires many websites use, in addition to that CRMs, ERPs are also required to connect different business processes.
• E-commerce has the mandatory requirement of internet, on the other hand, e-business has use of internet, intranet or extranet.
• E-commerce is basically more into Business-to-Consumer model, while e-business is more of Business-to-Business.
• E-business has internal as well as external business activities, e-commerce just covers the external business process.

SMALL AND MEDIUM SCALE ENTERPRISES (SMEs)

India has certain requirements for categorizing the enterprises as small and medium.

50. Small Enterprises:- Investment in plant machinery should be more than 25 lakh rupees but do not exceed 5 crore rupees.
50. Medium Enterprises:- Investment in plant machinery should be more than 5 crore rupees but not exceeding 10 crore.

    SMEs today are the biggest strength of Indian economy. These not only contribute to the GDP of the country but also a biggest source of employment for the people. Its growing numbers in not only India but in the whole world opens the possibility of its growth on a wider level The efforts are required to make it flourish so that they can earn more and more profits and they get their due share

E-BUSINESS STRATEGIES FOR THEIR DEVELOPMENT

The use of e-business is limited by the SMEs and they don’t even think much on this to build a market for themselves.  E-business comes with a lot of opportunities for them to reach wider geographical markets and have customers from all around the world. That’s why e-business should be used as an asset by the SMEs to achieve a milestone.

50. Through this e-business, many entrepreneurial start-ups can offer new services and develop new business models.
50. The established SMEs can use it for expanding their markets into national and international levels.
50. They can even use it to have the connections through internet with the other larger firms and establishing supply-chain relationship with them.
50. They can use B2B, B2C models for their business and can have relationships with wider base of customers and businesses as well.
50. They can use this e-business for giving some innovative and exclusive services which can easily make them stand out from the crowd and will make a place for them in very less time.
50. The e-business of SMEs can be synced with the physical marketing of SMEs so that both its online and offline market has the same catalogue and company’s website address be displayed on the physical documents of the company. These synergies will result in the benefits of the company.
50. The SMEs can use e-business in three steps as well:-

1. Publishing information on their websites
2. Interacting with the suppliers and the customers
3. Engaging in business transformation process; allowing customers to have more control over the relationship they share because of the specified order time, deliveries tracking and orders customization.

These three steps are more followed one but due to the high cost involved with the e-commerce, even the SMEs with enhanced sales growth, profit and procurement though this e-business does not get much success.

50. The high cost involved with the above pointed strategy gave rise to the other step for the SMEs. This talks about four pronged strategy for the development of SMEs:

1. Using online medium for the information.
2. After providing the information, use of it for the communication
3. From communications, there should be shift to transactions and
4. Lastly as an integrated strategic part of the business of the firm

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ADVANTAGES SMEs GAIN BY USING E-BUSINESS

1. New Revenue generations by the SMEs as they have wider market and more customers.
2.  They get short and long term competitive advantages by standing out from the crowd for their products and services.
3. Reduction in the advertisement cost as websites are doing that work now.
4. This online medium give the chance to find and retain contact with the customers.
5. This provides an opportunity to expand products and services as well.

CONCLUSION

 Though this e-business came up as an opportunity for the SMEs, but with time SMEs lagged behind with the expansion of the digital economy. The huge costs and complex method of setting up the e-business led to the lagging of the SMEs. Now the time again coming in the favor of the SMEs as the costs of setting up the e-business is coming down and its making this e-business coming into the reach of SMEs.  E-business is really a platform for the SMEs to take the step further in achieving high with their business models and services. In addition to this, it reduces the transaction costs, make their market wide, make them build the connections with the suppliers and customers online and secure the access to valuable information.

BY- URVASHI