Ecommerce in Business Environment

This article explores the roles and features of ecommerce in the business environment, with a focus on Black Fasteners. It discusses the opportunities and barriers of ecommerce, its suitability for Black Fasteners, revenue models, supply chain management, and collaborative supply chain opportunities.

Running head: ECOMMERCE IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
ECOMMERCE IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
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Introduction:
Ecommerce is widely known as electronic commerce or internet commerce that refers to
the conducting business through internet. Ecommerce in business environment is to buy and sell
goods and services via the internet along with transfer of money and data in order to execute
these services (Rahayu & Day, 2015). Ecommerce is often utilized for selling physical products
online however it can also be describe as any forms of commercial transaction that is facilitated
via internet. Blacks Fasteners is a company that supply fastening and other industrial material
products. The company supply goods to both B2B and B2C. Black Fasteners have developed a
fully automated inventory, Blacks take pride in themselves on being able to be of the best
responsive company to customer’s needs. The ecommerce for Blacks Fasteners have proved to
be not only efficient but also highly beneficial. In the present era, the e-business has been
providing opportunities for small business as well to grow and reach large population for
business. The paper aims to discuss the roles and features of e-commerce in business
environment with help of the company Black fasteners. Since ecommerce provides a wide range
of opportunities, the paper also discusses the way organizations can utilize these ecommerce
business models to achieve organizations objectives.
The company:
Blacks Fasters online store supply superior quality fasteners and tools to customers as
well as other businesses. The company’s inventory is extensive and constantly growing of
quality product. It is sourced locally as well as around the globe in a fully computerized, fast and

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efficient way. The company takes pride in their online service capability and the trust they gain
on every delivery (Blacks Fasteners, 2018).
Opportunities and barriers for e business
A B2C or business-to-customer is the type of commerce transaction where the product
selling or the commerce transaction is to consumers. The reason ecommerce is growing
extensively is due to the reason it has provided several advantages in business. It has made
several possibilities for the companies while reaching their customers. The four opportunities for
Black fasteners by using ecommerce are:
More business opportunities: discussing about opportunities, it cannot be ignored that a
web store is far more capable in strengthening online presence than any other method. Blacks
Fasteners have the opportunity of building their online presence that will bring the attention of
the other business in the market. Online presence of Blacks Fasteners has let potential clients and
resellers search them in an easy and more convenient way (Veit et al., 2014). It is one of the
effective ways of communicating with other businesses by posting a query. Also, though online
web page Blacks fasteners can make their catalogue page public or even by keeping it private it
can use targeted marketing content in the web store in order to grab attention.
Improve sales: Blacks Fasteners can improve its sales by attracting more clients however
it is not the only way a B2B ecommerce platform can help improve the company’s business
performance. Choosing the appropriate B2B solution will let Blacks Fasteners display relevant
and specific products recommendation on the website for the visitors. Also, ensuring that client
see the related products along with the item’s features can also be monitored through the

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ecommerce. It can unlock powerful cross selling and up-selling as well (Chen, Chen & Xu,
2016).
Lowering costs: Ecommerce have made possible reaching people in no time with less or
no costs. Although growing revenue and minimizing costs may sound impossible, it is possible
and a real benefit of B2B e-commerce. Blacks Fasteners can utilise this scope of growing
revenue in minimum cost as modern technology helps in taking almost every aspect of business
through online medium. It involves customer service, client information and order entry.
Through streaming these various processes and automating these processes will help Blacks
Fasteners reduce the cost by cutting down unnecessary costs even while making their business
process in more efficient way.
Customer feedback: when the experience of the online market is great, clients think of
coming back over and over again. Black fasteners also utilize this opportunity of getting their
clients’ feedback. It is most convincing to believe a review that is given by a customer rather
than wholesaler, or manufactures (Dumitriu et al., 2015).
Along with the opportunities, there are ecommerce have several barriers. The several
barriers that ecommerce have are as follows:
Only selling the products: Even though ecommerce offer various opportunities, the
Blacks Fasteners have to be an out-of-box thinker in order to use the opportunities of the
ecommerce business.
Limitation in interaction with the customers: The relationship building that is possible
through physical interaction that is not possible through virtual connection. Therefore, Black

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Fasteners has to ensure there is maximum ways for the companies to satisfy customers and the
customers to reach the company whenever possible.
Lack of time: ecommerce is a big venture that requires attention to a great extent.
Therefore, ecommerce business needs to be maintained and have to be taken care. There is
possibility of ignorance and loss of client if time factors are not considered. Therefore, in order
to avoid this barrier Blacks Fastener will need to pay exclusive care to the online market. A
separate team may become helpful that would be dedicated only towards the online team keeping
good care of the inventory and online demands (Kumar & Kumar, 2014).
Overlooking the competition: since online markets are growing a field of business, there
is certainly high competition. There is no scope of making any mistake for there are other
competitors with high resources and knowledge. Therefore, for Blacks Fastener it is important to
first gather knowledge and resources before stepping in the online market.
Suitability to e-Commerce
Ecommerce in any business consists of information exchange. Where the right
information is described about the products, it becomes the most suitable for the customers.
Sharing business is and conducting business transactions through telecommunication is the most
crucial for the ecommerce. Certainly not every product or services can be done through
ecommerce. The reason Blacks fasteners are suitable for the ecommerce is due to the fact that
theirs products are easily transported. They can sell the products to customers as well as other
businesses (Faloye, 2014). With the help of internet, the products descriptions are mentioned
which let the customers and other dealers know about the products. Any products that can take
advantages of the convenience of the net is suitable for the ecommerce. Blacks Fasteners

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provides products that have high value, they are suitable for shipping by mail and they are
information based products. Also, Blacks fasteners provide good services and niche products.
A combined approach of traditional marketing and ecommerce business can be highly
beneficial. With the help of internet the traditional business get the recognization. The Blacks
fasteners have gained the popularity not only in the local areas but also across the globe. With
the help of ecommerce, the Blacks Fasteners are able to carry out business with a wider range of
people. It brings in growth of a business. Combined approach is a multichannel approach that
helps in getting connected to retailers, small or big. Target has long been seen as the traditional
brick and motor retailers with stores however with the internet, the large proportion is achieved.
It helps in engaging with customers in a different way.
Revenue model identification and recommendation
A revenue model is a conceptual structures that represents the revenue earning strategy of
the business. It involves the product and the services of value. The revenue generation
techniques, the target consumers of the product offered and the revenue sources. In case of Black
Fasteners, the revenue models used are advertising and ecommerce. The company has certainly
made growth to its business by the revenue model it has used. The most promising and oldest
money making source is the advertising. The black fasteners use the model in order to reach
larger population. Advertising have always been one of the best ways of generating revenues.
With the growth in technology and digitalization, the company has made full use of the revenue
model and have given successful result to the company (DaSilva & Trkman, 2014).
The traditional world of retail that consisted of malls and high street stores have certainly
made profit however it has changed in the recent days. With the growth in technology there have

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been tremendous change in the traditional retail. The companies such as amazon and ebay the
concept of revenue model changed too. Blacks Fasteners have also used the same procedure of
using ecommerce as the revenue generating model (Maity & Dass, 2014).
The two alternative revenue model for the Black faster would be affiliate marketing and
selling data. Affiliating marketing is a strategy that is most followed by high-traffic blogs.
Through this revenue model, customers can signs up for affiliate programs that are associated
with their service and products. The other revenue generating model would involve high quality
and exclusive data in regard to their most selling products. Since the company is in both B2B and
B2C, it can sell the knowledge associated with its products for better use and hassle free usage.
Supply Chain Management
From the perspective of supply chain management, the value of the ecommerce venture is
created with several factors. The most prominent factor in the supply chain management of the
Blacks fasteners is the well managed inventory. Inventory management is one of the crucial part
of ecommerce business and any negligence can lead to overburden and complexity. Therefore
with the ability to customize products, less SKUs are stocked that helps in reducing the cost of
carrying and managing inventory. The other important factor that creates value for the company
is the on-time service (Brandenburg et al., 2014). They ecommerce takes pride in delivering its
service and products to the customers on time. Also, by ensuring continuous improvement, the
company is constantly making its supply chain divisions better at managing the in-house work
such as labour cost and adaption to the fast changing business needs.

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Collaborative Supply Chain Opportunities
The first strategy for Blacks fasteners is adopting a demand-driven planning and business
operating model based on real-time demand insights as well as demand shaping. An effective
planning will help in ensuring control over the complete view. It will help in having effective
response to risks associated with it such as suppliers going out of business and many more.
The second strategy for the Blacks fasteners would be building an adaptive and agile suppy chain
with developed planning along with integrated execution. When the executives capable enough
to understand and shape the demand and risk, they will need to adapt to their supply chains to the
altering market opportunities and events.
Since the Black fasteners have a successful business rapidly growing it is bound to
expand. Certainly there will be a need for appropriate planning. The key would be having
foresight to leverage opportunities. The first strategy would be beneficial in avoiding error
occurrence and ensuring not only surviving but also succeeding the business. The second
strategy would help the business in adapting to the new changes quickly. In the present situation,
the business market is changing with rapid speed which is certainly inevitable (Reefke &
Sundaram, 2017). Therefore the second strategy is to deploy dynamic planning capabilities in
order to meet changing demand.
The two anti-competitive possibilities can be associated with the service quality. By
giving quality service the company can sustain its position of being best at its work. It will help
them retaining their loyal customers as well. Other anti-competitive possibilities will involve
building string relationship with customer. Building strong relationship with customer helps in

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making the company a trusted company for the customers who have carried out business with the
company.

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References:
Blacks Fasteners supply a superior quality fasteners and tools, including Fischer fixings,
supported by an experienced sales and service team to builders, engineers, trades and
customers throughout New Zealand. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.blacksfasteners.co.nz/
Brandenburg, M., Govindan, K., Sarkis, J., & Seuring, S. (2014). Quantitative models for
sustainable supply chain management: Developments and directions. European journal of
operational research, 233(2), 299-312.
Chen, Y., Chen, H., & Xu, L. (2016, August). Social Media and eBusiness: Cultural Impacts on
the Influence Process in Consumer Communities. In IOP Conference Series: Materials
Science and Engineering (Vol. 142, No. 1, p. 012134). IOP Publishing.
DaSilva, C. M., & Trkman, P. (2014). Business model: What it is and what it is not. Long range
planning, 47(6), 379-389.
Dumitriu, D., Voicu, P., Mihai, P., & Ioanid, A. (2015, October). Competitive marketing
advantages in online businesses. In International Conference on Management and
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Faloye, D. O. (2014). The adoption of e-commerce in small businesses: an empirical evidence
from retail sector in Nigeria. Journal of Business and Retail Management Research, 8(2).

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Kumar, M. P., & Kumar, T. S. (2014). E-business: Pros and cons in Customer Relationship
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Maity, M., & Dass, M. (2014). Consumer decision-making across modern and traditional
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Rahayu, R., & Day, J. (2015). Determinant factors of e-commerce adoption by SMEs in
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Reefke, H., & Sundaram, D. (2017). Key themes and research opportunities in sustainable supply
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Veit, D., Clemons, E., Benlian, A., Buxmann, P., Hess, T., Kundisch, D., ... & Spann, M. (2014).
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