E-Business Globalization on Columbia Records Business Strategy

The Internet over the past few years has seen a huge increase in online businesses and consumers. Electronic-commerce is expected to generate $36 billion in revenue during 1999, up 140% from last year alone.[1] With such a huge amount of money to be made on the Internet it is becoming very appealing for small businesses and start-up companies to try and make their niche in e-commerce. The Internet is drastically affecting the way companies and people conduct business now. E-commerce encourages growth in existing as well as new businesses because of lower overhead costs, the huge consumer base and the freedom of information flow. However the online revolution has created a large

e-commerce is all about using the Internet to do business better and faster. Most businesses

Electronic business, or e-business or "electronic commerce"(55) has increased exponentially because so many businesses are on digital networks. Major business transactions are completed on the enterprise. Digital networking is transforming businesses relationships with the companies customer, their employees and relationships with suppliers and partners in business. E business technology is also improving the way business is done in the government. The government uses the Internet to enable and increase business

E - Business presents a great opportunity to and organization to increase sales and enter into a much larger

A computers have become more mainstream, more and more operations are conducted online. From online bill pay to simple searches, as one would do with the yellow pages, to online shopping, the Internet has helped shape the way computers are used today. With the Dotcom boom of the mid-nineties and early 2000s, ecommerce and e-business really started to take off. The Internet has given way to some of the biggest economic booms in history. The invention of smartphones and tablets has allowed for consumers to have instant access to the Internet, right at one's fingertips. While e-business is becoming more mainstream, and has its advantages, e-business also has its disadvantages.

COMBE, C. ( 2006). Introduction to e-business : management and strategy. Amsterdam ; Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann.

E-business stands for electronic business. The role of E-business is conducting the business via the electronic by synchronizing all the supply chain to make the process more efficient and get to fulfill more customer demand. It could reduce the cost of production, expands the business by giving support from business to business. While, E-commerce is the process of transferring money which is different from e-business, so e-commerce is being considered as a part of e-business.

E-business is relativity new and refers how companies do business on the internet. PC Magazine defines Electronic Business as “Doing Business online. The term is often used synonymously with e-commerce but e-business is more of an umbrella term for having a presence on the Web.” (2012) In our ever changing world where a companies’ online presence is equally important as the sign on the front door, it only makes sense for a business to spend time and money on their online business.

E-business uses the digital technology to optimize the business activities of organization in order to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of operation and gain competitive advantages. E-business provides the solution that allows the organization to instantly share database, information of products and services, financial figures and data and nearly anything else that the organization may need to operate the business activities effectively and efficiently (Nguyen, 2013). E-commerce which is the abbreviation of electronic commerce is the subset of e-business. It focuses on the online transaction which includes selling of products or service by using computer network, primarily the Internet.

E-business can transform the way a company does their business. There are plenty of benefits of this form of business for both the company and the customers. It gives customers an unlimited access to your products at every time of the day while most traditional brick shops would only be opened for a limited time. Secondly it makes expansion into foreign markets much easier as you can always sell your products abroad as customers can see all the products with a mouse click

E-Business and the internet allow for businesses to reach large sections of the population. It has changed the way we conduct business. It has impacted the way consumers make their decisions. The internet has enabled long distance purchasing as there are no geographical barriers. This is very evident from Zappos.com one of the first companies to take advantage of this.

As mentioned in the mini assignment, this paper will focus on analyzing and understanding Staples Inc.’s e-business strategy. Staples Inc. is a large office product chain company operating 1780 stores worldwide, serving individual customers and businesses. Their product line includes office supplies, furniture, business services and technology (Staples Corporate Responsibility Report, 2005). This company has thrived through the years to maintain high product and service standards and also managed to create a huge online presence by crossing the $10billion in online sales threshold (Dragan, January 2013).

New approaches to business sought through use of the Internet and its continuous updated technologies are dynamically being deployed by organisations to appropriate innovative value creation online (Chaffey, 2009). Information technology has been noted for its value creation, defined as “drivers of product differentiation” (Amit and Zott, 2001) in business, as it supports alternative marketing strategies. More specifically, the current state of the Internet as a communication platform, with its powerful and far reaching influence and lack of constraints to time nor place (Deighton, 1997), has had a profound affect on both culture and business practice throughout recent years

E-business can be defined as a network of business structures and processes which use the internet and software to connect and improve relationships with their customers

The e-business model is like a traditional business model, it describes how a company functions, how it sells products and services, how to capture new markets and technologies, and how to generate revenue. The basic difference between the two models is that an e-business is conducted over the internet and also known as electronic business. Like any other business, e-business activities also take place between the two parties mainly for the sale and purchase of products and services, these transactions occur either between Business-to-business (B2B) or between business-to-customers (B2C).