The variety of available options for doing business on the Internet allows wholesalers to decide how involved they want to get.
Business magazines these days are full of articles insisting that to survive in the 21st century, companies must have their own e-commerce Web sites. Furthermore, these sites must let the companies' customers perform a variety of functions, such as placing orders and checking the status of earlier orders or even the suppliers' inventory.
But what those articles don't discuss are the cost-effective alternatives to such complicated, expensive sites. Nor do they explain how to go about planning for and implementing a site as part of an overall e-business strategy. Without such a strategy, even the most comprehensive site may not be successful. This article explains the different kinds of e-business functions, sites and site arrangements that are possible. In a future article, I'll outline the steps to creating an e-business strategy.