Marketing: Customer Acquisition, Retention and Satisfaction Questions

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1. How can one best use the Internet to improve their organization's customer acquisition and retention initiatives?

Internet plays an extremely important role in reducing the inefficiencies and cost structure in the organizations which results in significant process improvement by efficient e-supply chain management. E-supply chain management helps in real time connectivity amongst all the parties related to the supply chain: the vendors, customers, employees and other related parties. E-. Supply chain management (SCM) aims at not only minimizing costs but also helps in adding value to total manufacturing process. It has been in limelight now days due to globalization and rise of ecommerce. For example WESCO had adapted the ecommerce and the other new wireless technologies to improve its supply chain management. It has integrated the system of the organization with its vendors and customers with the help of new technologies such as XML, EAT and wireless protocols. Thus organizations can tie up with the leading vendors such as Nokia or Motorola for adaptation of these latest technologies.

Thus Internet based technologies focuses on globalization and information management tools, which integrate procurement, operations, and logistics from raw materials to customer satisfaction. With the widespread implementation and acceptance of e-business, the traditional methods and rules have changed to improve profitability, fulfillment and supply chain management. Hence e supply chain management is important. It uses e-business concepts and Web technologies to manage beyond the organization, upstream and downstream. It is the strategic approach that unites all steps in the business cycle, from initial product design and the procurement of raw materials, through production, shipping, distribution, and warehousing until a finished product is delivered to a customer.

Companies with a network of suppliers, vendors, and distributors need a fast, efficient way to disseminate information and enable two-way communications. Thus ecommerce enabled supply chains provide following strategic opportunities:
Provide a starting point where buyers and sellers enter the market either through a web browser, procurement interface or supply chain optimization solution.

Help in gathering buyers and sellers and facilitate and enable transactions online.

Thus it can create value for organizations by aggregating buyers and sellers, creating marketplace liquidity and reducing transaction costs. Moreover internet technology allows a level of collaboration between previously loosely affiliated partners in the supply chain, which would have been difficult or prohibitively expensive in the past for all but the biggest producers or retailers. It leads to collaboration over product designs and ...