Small Businesses Part of Global Marketplace
The following comments appeared in the Small Business Advocate Newsletter. They reflect the converging forces of globalization and the Internet on the SMB market:
“Hopefully it won’t come as a surprise that your small business is part of a global marketplace. That means your competitors are across town, across the country, and across the planet. Plus there’s a new Main Street where competitors set up shop in a market called cyberspace, where customers and businesses get together by doing eBusiness.
eBusiness is the overarching perspective of the online marketplace, and includes three primary activities:
1. eCommerce - where customers make purchases and lay their money down online.
2. eShopping - where customers educate themselves online, both in terms of product options and technical information.
3. eCustomer Service - where businesses employ online technology to serve customers in activities that do not require human involvement, like a Frequently Asked Questions resource.
This new global and cyber reality is creating both threats and opportunities. Small businesses must be prepared to challenge the threats and pursue the opportunities.”



