Technology and Business

One of the fondest memories of my childhood is playing with my cousins at my aunt’s small boutique. I would count the lipsticks in stock, know every style of shoes, and familiarize myself to every smell of cologne. I love to pretend, and sometimes actually be part of the business—handover the customer order, count inventory and most especially chat with customers. I learned at a young age that you build network and expand your market base by establishing good relationship.
When I worked as a systems auditor for a big auditing firm, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to study how big corporations make their money and how do they do it with the aid of technology—the so-called electronic commerce or eCommerce.
Electronic commerce has been described as many things, one of which is that it is the engine for new wealth. Maybe that definition is arguable, but one thing is for sure, it changed some ways businesses are done. The changes implied by eCommerce go to the core of how companies are created, operated, and managed. It also paved the way for BPOs, which is booming here the Philippines.
However, no matter how revolutionary eCommerce is, there are still some things that will never change. I believe one of which is customer relationship. Commerce centers on relationships, involving the exchange of value between parties. It means designing and operating the business from the customer perspective and recognizing that all aspects of your operation affect the customer, including processes such as shipping. For example, small retailers generate high repeat business through their attention to building and sustaining trusted relationships, and by ensuring first rate-inventory management and fulfillment orders. On the other hand, eCommerce attract customers though promotions, blogs and convenience it offers, and then may eventually lose them through late delivery and poor, or no response, to queries.
It must be emphasized that eCommerce wins through business performance that includes—but not exclusively tied to—technological sophistication. eCommerce is still first and foremost about commerce, and commerce is built on certain foundations that technology cannot replace—like customer relationship.