E-commerce and digital business benefits

E-commerce and digital businesses offer a range of tangible and intangible benefits to customers, businesses and society.

Tangible benefits are those that are measurable, such as increasing revenue, whereas intangible benefits are more difficult to directly evaluate.

Tangible benefits	Intangible benefits
Increased sales from new sales leads	Corporate image communication; enhancement of brand
Increased revenue from new customers, new markets and existing customers (cross-selling)	Faster product development lifecycle, enabling faster response to market needs
Marketing cost reductions from reduced time in customer service, online sales, reduced printing and distribution costs of marketing communications	Better management of marketing information and customer information; more rapid, more responsive marketing communications, including PR
Supply chain cost reductions from reduced levels of inventory	Improved customer service; feedback from customers on product; learning for the future
Supply chain cost reductions from reduced levels of inventory and shorter cycle time in ordering	Meeting customer expectations to have a website
Administrative cost reductions from more efficient routine business processes such as recruitment, invoice payments and holiday authorisation	Identifying new partners; better support for existing partners

(Chaffey, 2015)

Your task

What could be the benefits for customers and society? Share your thoughts and insights in the comments section below.

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References

_{Chaffey, D. (2015). Digital business and e-commerce management : Strategy, implementation and practice (6th ed.). Locate link (Available to fee paying students)}