E-Commerce and E-Business
Technology has transformed the business landscape, especially since the start of the 21st century. No matter a company's size, technology has become an integral component for most organizations, particularly in the development of management and marketing information systems and company websites. Technology has been of great help to marketers in better understanding their customers' preferences, behaviors, and purchase trends, allowing them to design the most effective marketing strategy based on this intelligence. Meanwhile, the internet has resulted in the development of social media platforms like Facebook, enabling networking among consumers and with organizations that profoundly affect how marketers interact with their customers. The internet has also enabled the boom in electronic commerce (e-commerce) and the emergence of many online marketers, from Amazon to Etsy. This chapter discusses how e-commerce and e-business have increasingly become necessary components of business strategy and strong catalysts for economic development. However, technology continues to evolve, and organizations must keep pace to maintain their competitive edge.
Key terms and concepts
| Term | Definition |
| Community guidelines | The rules and principles that community members must adhere to when communicating on a social media platform. |
| Community management | Community management is the building and monitoring of online communities generated from your brand's blogs, forums, social network pages, etc. |
| Key performance indicator (KPI) | A metric that shows whether an objective is being achieved. |
| Lead | A person who has shown interest in a brand, product or service and could be converted into a customer. |
| Objective | A desired outcome of a digital marketing campaign. |
| Online reputation management (ORM) | Understanding and influencing the perception of an entity online. |
| Search engine optimisation (SEO) | The process of improving website rankings in search engines. |
| Social media dashboard | A service that allows you to centralise management of your social media properties. |
| Social network | In an online context, a type of website model where individual members become part of a broader virtual community |
| URL Shortener | A web tool that creates a shorter version of a full URL. |