1. What Is e-Commerce

e-Commerce (electronic-commerce) is defined as the commercial exchange of goods, services, or property of any kind, completed through an electronic medium.

e-Commerce

e-commerce solutions bring the open standards and universal access of the Internet to the core business processes of buying and selling goods and services. More than a transaction or exchange of payment, e-commerce also helps you generate demand for products or services, and improves your fulfillment, order management, payment and ongoing support functions. It can cut expenses by reducing transaction costs and streamlining business processes. And with the worldwide reach of the Web, an e-commerce solution can help you discover new markets while increasing your speed to market. e-commerce includes:

Electronic presentation of goods and services
Online order taking and bill presentation
Automated customer account inquiries
Online payment and transaction handling
Automated supply chain management (SCM) solutions

The Web is changing every aspect of our lives, but no area is undergoing as rapid and significant a change as the way businesses operate. As businesses incorporate Internet technology into their core business processes they start to achieve real business value. Today, companies large and small are using the Web to communicate with their partners, to connect with their back-end data-systems, and to transact commerce. This is e-business -- where the strength and reliability of traditional information technology meet the Internet.

This new Web + IT paradigm merges the standards, simplicity and connectivity of the Internet with the core processes that are the foundation of business. The new killer apps are interactive, transaction intensive, and let people do business in more meaningful ways.

Mr. Stephen Yeo, chief executive of the NCB, said: "The emergence of e-commerce is transforming the way businesses are conducted globally. The possibilities for new business opportunities are limitless. We want to be plugged into this global development and position Singapore as an international Electronic Commerce Hub. The aim is for Singapore to play the role of a secure and trusted node where electronic commerce transactions from around the region are processed."

Mr. Yeo added, "To do so, a pre-requisite would be to provide a conducive legal and policy framework to facilitate the development of electronic commerce. We need to create an environment of trust, predictability and certainty in the Singapore system, with good arbitration and good jurisdiction, for electronic commerce to flourish around us."

Types Of e-Commerce

Business-to-Business

The business-to-business kind of e-commerce refers to a company selling or buying from other companies. The Internet has the potential to greatly expand the value of goods and services businesses trade. An example in the business-to-business electronic commerce would be a company that uses a network for ordering from its suppliers, receiving invoices and making payments.[http://www.ispo.cec.be/ecommerce/introduc.htm]

In our context here, the company communicates with the other companies by electronic means. This is actually not new, as many businesses have already been doing it since the 80’s by means of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).

Estimated at more than $8 billion in 1997, the value of goods and services traded between businesses over the Internet (excluding transfer of funds or financial securities purchased) far exceeds on-line transactions between businesses and consumers. The pace at which businesses are beginning to use the Internet to interact with their business partners is picking up rapidly. Analysts predict that businesses would trade as much as $300 billion over the Internet in the next three to five years. Others think it could be much higher [Delhagen, 1997].

Business-to-Customer E-Commerce

The business-to-customer kind of e-commerce refers to a company selling its products or services to the customers using the Internet as the communication medium. The ability to purchase products and services conveniently and safely over the Internet and arrange their delivery to a designated address all from the comfort of their home or workplace.

The kinds of business-to-consumer services delivered over the Internet are:

One-way marketing. Corporate web sites are still prominent distribution mechanisms for corporate brochures, the push, one-way marketing strategy. Purchasing over the Web. Availability of secure web transactions is enabling companies to allow consumers to purchase products directly over the web. Electronic catalogs and virtual malls are becoming commonplace.

Relationship Marketing. The most prominent of these new paradigms is that of relationship marketing. Because consumer actions can be tracked on the web, companies are experimenting with this commerce methodology as a tool for market research and relationship marketing:

Consumer survey forms on the web

Using web tracking and other technology to make inferences about consumer buying profiles.

Customizing products and services

Achieving customer satisfaction and building long-term relationships

Intra-Company (Enterprise) eCommerce

The new tools of eCommerce, such as TCP/IP connectivity and web browsers, have finally enabled the building, sharing and use of information within companies. Intra-company applications of web-based technology are called intranets.

Companies are embracing intranets at a phenomenal growth rate because they achieve the following benefits:

Reducing cost - lowers print-intensive production processes, such as employee handbooks, phone books, and policies and procedures

Enhancing communications - effective communication and training of employees using web browsers builds a sense of belonging and community.

Distributing software - upgrades and new software can be directly distributed over the web to employees.

Sharing intellectual property - provides a platform for sharing expertise and ideas as well as creating and updating content - “Knowledge webs” . This is common in organizations that value their intellectual capital as their competitive advantage.

Testing products - allows experimentation for applications that will be provided to customers on the external web.

Interest & Usage of Business to Business e-Commerce

According to an eCommerce survey conducted by NCB in 1999, about 9% of all companies in the selected industries are currently using some form of Internet-based business-to-business e-commerce. 28% expressed interest in doing so within the next six months. The rest of the companies (63.5%) were either not interested, or were unsure of their future plans.

Figure 1: Interest and Usage in Business-to-Business E-Commerce

Interest & Usage By Industries

Among the industries covered, manufacturers of electronic products showed the highest level of current usage of e-commerce (14.9%). This was followed by freight forwarding companies (9.2%) and publishing companies (7.8%). These three industry sectors also reported the highest level of interest among companies planning to embark on e-commerce.

Figure 2: Interest and Usage in Business-to-Business E-Commerce by Industry

Interest & Usage By Company Size

More than 16% of the large companies are currently using the Internet for business-to-business e-commerce. Less than 8% of the small and medium companies are currently trading with their partners on the Internet. Among companies that have not started to use e-commerce, the larger ones appeared to be generally more enthusiastic about adopting e-commerce.

Figure 3: Interest and Usage in Business-to-Business E-Commerce by Company Size

Among companies currently selling through the Internet, about 72% uses web-based trading platforms (e.g. transaction-enabled websites, Internet trading communities) to accept sales orders directly through the Internet. 16% had a relatively narrower scope of activities, where only email was used to communicate sales order information among business partners. Among those planning to sell via the Internet, 69% expressed their intention to use their own web-based trading platforms to accept orders. 29% intended to use only email to communicate sales related order information with their business partners.

Figure 4

Overview

Singapore has a conducive and pro-business e-commerce environment to support the implementation and deployment of online services. This environment is the foundation and infrastructure for conducting electronic business on the Internet safely and reliably.

The environment consists of the physical network, components and services. It also includes a collection of standards, support and incentives to assist the online business community.

Steps are also being taken to ensure that the infrastructure is internationally linked in order to support cross-border transactions, and that policies are harmonized with international practice.

Laws and Regulations

Pro-business and relevant laws and regulations are needed for the growth of e-commerce. The government is committed to create an environment of trust, predictability and certainty in the Singapore system so that companies can feel safe and secure in conducting their online business. The EC Policy Committee, formed in January 1997, was a direct response to this need. Its task was to ensure that the legal and policy environment in Singapore was most conducive to e-commerce development. The Committee completed its work in Dec 97.
A major specific policy recommendation by the EC Policy Committee was the enactment of the Electronic Transactions Act (ETA). The ETA came into force in July 98. It provides a legal foundation for electronic transactions, and gives predictability and certainty to the electronic formation of contracts.
The Computer Misuse Act has also been amended to give greater protection to critical computer systems. Copyright laws are being updated to protect multimedia works, and a Privacy Code to safeguard consumer data is being drafted for industry self-regulation.

Connectivity

The Singapore Telecom Internet eXchange (STIX) is the Asian Internet Hub, connecting more than 15 countries in the Asia Pacific Rim. STIX has a total of 34 Mbps in links to the Asia Pacific region, the USA and the European Internet backbone. In addition, STIX has a direct connection (2 Mbps) to the European Internet backbone and operates two T3 (45 Mbps) direct connections to the US Internet backbone.

The Internet Service Providers also have dedicated overseas links, for example Pacific Internet's Asia Internet Holdings (AIH) connects to US via Japan for a total of about 4.0 Mbps, and Cyberway has a 128kbps link to the US via Japan.

Electronics Comerce Infrastructure

The Electronic Commerce Infrastructure (See figure below) can be categorise as follows:

Electronic Commerce Environment

These are guidelines and frameworks designed to make Singapore a conducive environment for electronic commerce. The environment includes technical standards, a legal and regulatory framework, and various incentive schemes.

Infrastructure Services

These are services that provide specific electronic commerce functions, like user authentication or credit card payment processing. Typically, one or more infrastructure service is required by an electronic commerce solution. The infrastructure services can be further categorised as Network Services, Directory Services, Security Services and Payment Services.

Commerce Solution Providers

These are organisations that offer complete end-to-end solutions, or packaged components of a solution, for businesses that choose not to implement electronic commerce systems on their own.

Figure 5: Electronic Commerce Infrastructure [http://www.ec.gov.sg]

IT 2000

The government has launched an Electronic Commerce Plan to drive the pervasive use of electronic commerce in Singapore, and to strengthen Singapore’s position as an international e-commerce hub. The target is to have S$4 billion worth of products and services transacted electronically through Singapore, and 50 per cent of businesses to use some form of e-commerce by the year 2003. Deputy Prime Minister BG (NS) Lee Hsien Loong announced this at the opening of COMDEX/ASIA at Singapore Informatics ’98.

The Plan have 5 main thrusts:

To develop an internationally linked e-commerce infrastructure
An internationally linked e-commerce infrastructure will strengthen Singapore’s position as an e-commerce hub. The financial and logistics sectors have a key role to play in driving this thrust. An efficient settlement system for Internet transactions between businesses, covering international trade payment and multi-currency payment, will be deployed over the next two years. A well-connected logistics infrastructure will be put in place to support the requirements for the delivery of physical goods. Singapore will also be positioned as a center of e-commerce infrastructure development, where international infrastructure players in areas such as trading platforms, trust management and rights management systems will hub to develop and deploy services here.
To jump-start Singapore as an e-commerce hub
This initiative will focus on the sectors in which Singapore has an inherent advantage as a hub, especially in business-to-business services. These advantages include a stable and excellent financial infrastructure, a transport and logistics infrastructure that is well known for its efficiency, and strong telecommunications connectivity and e-commerce infrastructures. Incentive schemes and other support programs will be used to attract international and local companies to base their e-commerce hub activities in Singapore. An international publicity plan is being developed, and trade shows will be used to promote Singapore as an e-commerce hub.
To encourage businesses to use e-commerce strategically
Under this thrust, education and other support programs will be put in place to help businesses exploit e-commerce to enhance their productivity and competitiveness. Simple and easy to use trading platforms are being provided, and a usage promotion drive will be launched to bring about widespread participation of SMEs. To ensure a steady supply of business and technical manpower, businesses will be encouraged to invest in retraining of their manpower through incentive programs.
To promote usage of e-commerce by the public and businesses
This thrust will enable our citizens and businesses to enjoy the benefits that e-commerce can bring, and at the same time, create an e-commerce savvy culture. Mass education efforts will be used. In addition, e-commerce will be taught in business and professional courses in our universities and polytechnics. The government itself will be setting the pace to proliferate the use of e-commerce in Singapore through its electronic Public Services initiatives. Key public services will be delivered electronically by the year 2001.
To harmonize cross-border e-commerce laws and policies
This thrust is key to enable businesses to trade confidently with overseas partners. Besides putting in place legislation that is internationally consistent, Singapore will work with its major trading partners to align each other’s e-commerce laws. Efforts have already been initiated with Canada, Australia and Germany. Singapore will also continue to participate actively at major international fore to bring about international agreements on harmonization of e-commerce frameworks.

Electronic Commerce Infrastructure

Electronic Commerce Environment

On-line business applications, the infrastructure services and the commerce solution providers all exist within Singapore’s overall electronic commerce environment. The electronic commerce environment is comprised of the following elements:

Legal and Regulatory Framework
There is a need for a conducive legal and policy environment for electronic commerce to flourish. Businesses need to have the assurance that they enjoy the same legal protections as traditional businesses when they conduct business on-line.

Policy Framework
A national Electronic Commerce (EC) Policy Committee commissioned by NCB, comprising of 15 government bodies and chaired by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has completed an Electronic Commerce Policy Framework which consists of a set of guiding principles and specific policy recommendations and initiatives. The framework, which has been endorsed by the Singapore government, sets out the policy objectives of the Government to work with the private sector to provide a conducive legal and operational environment for businesses to engage in Electronic Commerce in Singapore. It also contains policy recommendations that are targeted to help accelerate electronic commerce take-up and improve Singapore’s competitiveness with the view towards Singapore becoming a premiere electronic commerce hub.

Standards
Singapore has established a set of open, industry-led, technical standards in the areas of network protocols, security, e-mail and directories, electronic commerce, and information sources and exchange. The standards facilitate interconnection and interoperability of businesses over networks.

Incentive Schemes
Singapore has instituted a number of investment and tax incentives for on-line businesses. The incentives help organisations venturing into electronic commerce to manage the costs and risks of their initiatives.

Infrastructure Services

The Infrastructure Services are comprised of the followings:

Network Services
These services provide the networks that link on-line businesses. These services are provided by the Internet Service Providers (Cyberway, SingNet) and the Singapore ONE broadband network access providers (SingTel’s Magix and Singapore Cable Vision’s Cable Modem Service).

Directory Services
These services allow customers to search for information or web sites based on various search criteria. There are general purpose web-search engines like Yahoo! and Excite, some of which have sites in Singapore. In addition, some directory services have been set up to satisfy more content specific needs, for example, the National Contact Information Service (NCIS), which provides contact information of people and organizations in Singapore.

Security Services
These services provide secure identification and secure communication over the Internet. Many tools for these purposes are available commercially including Netscape Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Microsoft CryptoAPI. NCB’s Infrastructure for Electronic Identification (IEI) initiative provides secure communication and secure identification using digital certificates and digital signatures. The first digital certification authority for IEI, Netrust Pte Ltd, enables parties to verify the identity of individuals and organizations over an electronic network.

Payment Services
These services enable secure payments over the Internet.
The mechanisms available in Singapore include:

NETS Financial Electronic Data Interchange (FEDI), which is similar to inter-bank GIRO for sending payment and collection instructions electronically.
NETS Network CashCard (C-ONE), which enables the consumer to make low-value electronic purchases on the Internet with a stored-value smart card.
Secure Electronic Transactions (SET), which is a protocol, developed by Visa and MasterCard to support secure credit card payments.
Commerce Toolkit, an alternative to SET that allows transmission of credit card instructions between on-line merchants and banks.

Commerce Solution Providers

Commerce Solution Providers (CSPs) are organisations who offer complete end-to-end solutions for businesses that choose not to, or do not have the capability to, implement electronic commerce systems on their own. There are two categories of CSPs:

Business to Consumer Services
These CSPs create and host electronic commerce web sites for merchants who sell directly to individuals. Examples include NCS SelfServe and AsiaOne Commerce.

Business to Business Services
These CSPs provide services for electronic commerce between businesses. There are many such providers serving various business communities in Singapore, including TradeNet and Singapore Telecom’s Enterprise Messaging Services.

Benefits In Using e-Commerce

Electronic Commerce (or e-commerce) is still young, but its eventual impact to businesses will be huge. E-commerce can transform the way products and services are created, sold and delivered to the customer. It can also change the way in which a company works with its partners. This article describes some of the well-established benefits of e-commerce.

Improved Productivity

Using electronic commerce, the time required to create, transfer and process a business transaction between trading partners is significantly reduced. Furthermore, human errors and other problems like duplications of records are largely eliminated with the reduction of data-entry and re-entry in the process. This improvement in speed and accuracy, plus the easier access to document and information, will result in increase in productivity.

Cost Savings

Based on the experience of a wide variety of early adopters of electronic commerce, Forrester Research has estimated that doing business via the Internet can result in cost savings of about 5% to 10% of sales. This cost savings stem from efficient communication, quicker turnaround time and closer access to markets.

Examples of cost savings:

Cost of a typical banking transaction: Cost of a travel reservation: Cost of a brokerage transaction:

Branch: $1.07
ATM: $0.27
Internet: $0.01
Travel agent: $10.00
Online: $2.00
Full-service broker: $150.00
Discount broker: $69.00
Online broker: $10.00

Streamlined Business Processes

Cost savings are amplified when businesses go a step further and adapt their internal processes and back-end legacy systems to take advantage of electronic commerce. Inventories can be shaved if businesses use the Internet to share such information as promotional plans, point-of-sale data, and sales forecasts. Business processes can also be made more efficient with automation.

Better Customer Service

With electronic commerce, there is better and more efficient communication with customers. In addition, customers can also enjoy the convenience of shopping at any hour, anywhere in the world.

Opportunities for New Business

Businesses over the Internet have a global customer reach. There are endless possibilities for businesses to exploit and expand their customer base.

Benefits In Business & Business

The rapid growth of business-to-business electronic commerce is being driven by lower purchasing costs, reduction in inventories, lower cycle times, more efficient and effective customer service, lower sales and marketing costs, and new sales opportunities [Margherio, 1998, pp. 12-23].

Lower Purchasing Costs

Buying materials or services for a corporation can be an expensive and a multi-level process. By consolidating purchasing and developing relationships with key suppliers, companies can lower procurement costs by benefiting from volume discounts and tighter integration in the manufacturing process. They are able to search through the Internet for less costly supplies, and they use EDI over private networks to reduce labor, printing and mailing costs. The Internet has the potential to further reduce procurement costs by automating previously manual tasks. It opens the door to doing business electronically with new suppliers and with small and medium-sized suppliers who formerly communicated only via fax or phone. Its global reach and real-time communication capabilities are driving the creation of new on-line marketplaces for production and non-production materials.

Reduced Inventory/Having the Right Products in Stock

Having more accurate forecasts of what sells and what does not can increase inventory turnover and keep the right products in stock. The Internet and private networks can be used to make sure the information gets to those who need to see it, when they need to see it.

Lower Cycle Times

Cycle time is the total time it takes to build a product. There are certain fixed costs associated with building any product that do not vary with the amount of production, but rather are time dependent. These “fixed” costs include depreciation of equipment, most utility and building costs, and most managerial and supervisory time. If the time to build a product can be reduced from ten to seven days, then the fixed costs per product are lower since less time was needed. Electronic Commerce allows “cycle times” to be shortened, allowing more to be produced for the same or lower costs. Establishing electronic links with suppliers and customers enabled companies to transmit and receive purchase orders, invoices and shipping notifications with much shorter lead times than previously. Some also began to share product specifications and drawings over value-added networks to speed product design and development.

More Efficient and Effective Customer Service

Companies are beginning to use the Internet for customer service. Having product descriptions, technical support and order status information on-line not only saves money by freeing up a company’s own customer service staff to handle more complicated questions and manage customer relations, it can also lead to more satisfied customers. Companies have long gathered and stored information about customers and products in databases that only certain authorized employees can access. Innovative businesses are finding ways to tap the potential of that information, making it available to those who need it most-whether it’s a customer service representative answering a phone call or a customer looking for account information or technical support on-line.

Lower Sales and Marketing Costs

An individual sales person can handle only as many customers’ accounts as he can physically visit or contact by telephone. Generally, more accounts mean that a larger sales force is required to handle them efficiently. Even direct marketing companies whose businesses rely on people to take orders by telephone increase staffing as order volume increase. By contrast, a Web business can add new customers with little or no additional cost. Because its sales function is housed in a computer server rather than physical store locations or sales people, its reach is bounded only by the ability of the servers to handle inquiries and orders.

New Sales Opportunities

The Internet operates around the clock and around the world. As a result, businesses on the Web can reach new markets they could not reach effectively with an in-person sales force or advertising campaigns. A vendor’s sales force may not be able to reach the millions of home offices and small offices around the country. By having an on-line presence and creating customized services for the small business market, that vendor may develop a new lucrative market not bounded geographically.

Business Consideration for Implementation in Singapore

Companies thinking about electronic commerce sometimes approach banks, vendors or other partners for information and assistance. Some may face difficulty in getting any information or cooperation. Others become overloaded with too much information and do not know what is relevant.
Here is a guide for the steps a company must go through when implementing electronic commerce.

Step1: Understand how electronic commerce is changing the business

Electronic commerce is changing the way business is being conducted. Traditional ways of doing business may no longer apply in the electronic medium. Each company needs to look at its core business to see how it can evolve to survive in an EC environment. Business partners might be linking up and bypassing your business, and new competitors might be reaching your customers through e-commerce.

Step2: Analyze business processes and plan for the changes

How does your business relate to your suppliers, customers and employees? Which of these processes could be improved using the Internet?

Set a budget and timeframe and do a scan of the external and internal environment. With this information, decide which of the processes would be the best to begin with and the degree of the change you need. All these would form the vision that could be shared with your business partners in order to gain their support.

Step 3: Choose between in-house implementation or outsourcing

Once the business process change has been determined, you would then have to check if you have the in-house technical expertise to handle the project. Outsourcing may save costs, but will still require heavy involvement from your company. This is needed to ensure that the system is up to expectation and meets your needs. A check on previous projects done by the technical vendors would help assess their standard and competency. You could also approach businesses that have embarked on e-commerce projects to learn from their experience and avoid the pitfalls.

Step 4: Design for audience - Simplicity is the key

Unless you are using a standard provided by a shared platform or or mall operator, designing your system or website could be a challenging task. The target users might not be technically minded. The best sites have:

Simple layout with easy-to-follow instructions
Minimum number of plug-ins
Useful and attractive content, that do not slow down the system
Security and appropriate payment mechanisms

Step 5: Put operational processes in place

While the website or technical solution is being developed, the business operations must be adjusted to fit the new e-commerce strategy. Efficiency is the key. Warehousing, delivery, and prompt customer support must all be in place. Operational processes should also take into consideration the issue of security and privacy. For example, how customer’s data is stored and who has access to this data. This might seem trivial but is important because it affects the customer’s confidence in your company.

Step 6: Update and improve constantly

Simply designing a state-of-the-art system or website is not sufficient. Your company needs to regularly update and maintain the system. Outdated promotions, dead links, or slow response could damage the company image. Customer tastes and market conditions also change, so strategies need to be refined constantly.

Step 7: Provide impeccable customer support

The success of your system or website depends on the support and goodwill of the users whether they be your customers, suppliers or employees. So it is important that you provide good service and support, guiding them whenever they have problems using the system and acting on their feedback. Nothing assures your customers more than showing your integrity and confidence in doing businesses, such as providing money-back guarantees and product warranties. It is just as important to act on these guarantees promptly when the customer requests. As the saying goes, good customer service goes a long way.

Step 8: Make yourself known

Marketing cannot be over-emphasized. As with any physical store, there is a need to bring customers to the virtual store. Marketing can be done via electronic form, such as taking up banner advertisements at popular sites, forming a partnership with a portal or forming alliances with related sites. Traditional means such as press advertising, TV advertising, informing your business partners, being listed in business directories also help.

Step 9: Encourage usage

Having visitors or traffic to your system or website is not enough. Visitors need to feel compelled to consume the services and products you provide or engage more closely with your company. Providing incentives such as discounts, or free samples or customisation services can do this.

Each of these steps are important to a successful implementation. We hope that business will consider each of these when venturing into e-commerce.

The Future

With all the efforts going into developing electronic commerce in Singapore, we can see that it is going to play a big role in the way business is conducted. Electronic commerce looks set to be a way businesses will be conducted in Singapore.More infrastructure services for Singapore are being planned. These are in the areas of business-to-business e-payment systems, electronic notary, rights management, transport and logistics services.

Businesses that use the Internet to buy, sell, distribute and support products and services are realising significant cost savings and increased sales opportunities. The benefits increase only when the network of businesses conducting electronic commerce grows.

As the Internet’s performance and reliability improve over time, and as predictable legal frameworks emerge, the growth of business-to-business electronic commerce will accelerate. Furthermore, since most of the SMEs in Singapore do business abroad [ST, 2nd Jan 1999], there seem to be much more for them to gain from business-to-business electronic commerce. Government and industry will continue to work closely to develop and deploy these new infrastructure services.

The School

The People

The Mission

e-Commerce

Business-to-Business

Business-to-Customer E-Commerce

Intra-Company (Enterprise) eCommerce

Interest & Usage By Industries

Interest & Usage By Company Size

Laws and Regulations

Connectivity

Electronics Comerce Infrastructure

Electronic Commerce Environment

Infrastructure Services

Commerce Solution Providers

Improved Productivity

Cost Savings

Streamlined Business Processes

Better Customer Service

Opportunities for New Business

Lower Purchasing Costs

Reduced Inventory/Having the Right Products in Stock

Lower Cycle Times

More Efficient and Effective Customer Service

Lower Sales and Marketing Costs

New Sales Opportunities

Step1: Understand how electronic commerce is changing the business

Step2: Analyze business processes and plan for the changes

Step 3: Choose between in-house implementation or outsourcing

Step 4: Design for audience - Simplicity is the key

Step 5: Put operational processes in place

Step 6: Update and improve constantly

Step 7: Provide impeccable customer support

Step 8: Make yourself known

Step 9: Encourage usage

Local Retail Application

Local Services Site

Local Online Trading Site

Local Business To Business Application

Cost of a typical banking transaction:	Cost of a travel reservation:	Cost of a brokerage transaction:
Branch: $1.07 ATM: $0.27 Internet: $0.01	Travel agent: $10.00 Online: $2.00	Full-service broker: $150.00 Discount broker: $69.00 Online broker: $10.00