Norton International Manufacturing Company Case Study Essay

Once a decision is made to develop a business, whom the customer will be is the next decision to be made. Whom will the company target as a customer? Will it be a business? Or will it be a consumer? Business-to-business (B2B) marketing has differences from business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing practices. This paper will outline these differences between the two types of e-commerce business transactions.

In the following sections I will propose a supply chain strategy which will align company goals and initiatives increasing efficiency and driving down cost thereby creating a sustainable competitive advantage through the implementation of a synergistic supply chain strategy.

The supply chain is a system made amongst different companies producing and distributing the product. Specifically, the supply chain contains the steps it takes to deliver goods or services from the supplier to the customer.

Supply chains represent the procurement, production and distribution activities of an organisation. Within a supply chain, these activities are viewed as linked and reliant on one another to produce the final outcome. It is believed that if one component of the chain fails, the whole chain is broken and product/service delivery goals will not be achieved.

The supply chain is all parts of the company that fulfill a customer’s order. This can include direct or indirect contact with the customer. Suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers make up some of the parts of a supply chain that are needed to fill a customer’s order. One of the major parts of the supply chain is the transportation of the raw material or the finished product. Transportation can be done many ways, which include truck, pipeline, air, water, package carriers, rail, and intermodal. Air transportation can have its advantages and its disadvantages.

E-Commerce is with no trouble the buying and selling of various merchandise and services over the web. Any individual with access to the web can have interaction with e-commerce buying and selling. E-commerce has two varieties of buying and selling and that is trade-to-patron (B2C) and industry-to-industry (B2B).

The challenges that organizations face in supply chain integration is the ability to successfully coordinate activities across the supply chain so that they can improve performance in the areas of increase service level, reduce cost, better utilize resources, reduce bullwhip effect, and effectively respond to changes in the marketplace. According to Levi (2008),

The supply chain is a system/network that includes inventory, distribution and transportation functions and consists of raw material suppliers,

Supply chain integration has essential elements which were revealed by literature review. Based on the combination of existing literature, it is concluded that the two most basic and crucial elements of supply chain integration are connectivity and simplification. The importance of these two

A B2B e-marketplace is an Internet based platform that enables corporations of any size to exchange goods, services, and information in an efficient way than was previously not possible.

Business to Consumer e-Commerce, also referred to as B2C, is the process of selling goods and services over the Internet rather than having a traditional brick and mortar outlet to sell such products. Businesses establish a website or electronic marketplace with multimedia catalogs, interactive order processing, protected electronic payment systems, while also offering online customer support which allow consumers to shop and purchase items in confidence (Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-business-to-consumer-e-commerce.htm).

The rapid growth of e-commerce on the Internet has created a challenge for traditional bricks and mortar businesses. Businesses must now change their focus about their own business models, target market, products, and services, and ultimately their own benefits. This paper will compare and contrast the business models of a business to business (B2B), a business to customer (B2C), and a customer to customer (C2C). The Internet

B2B is the commercial transactions between enterprises and enterprises through electronic media such as the Internet Extranet. B2B E-Commerce is the arising from suppliers to customers who want to reduce the cost and length of procurement as well as international organizations to improve the efficiency and security of communication over the network even more.

“The development and integration of people and other resources like technological are crucial to successful supply chain integration.”

The B2C sector of e-commerce is then a real evolution and is characterized by several points: