Market Overview: : B2B E-Commerce and the Rise of Multiple Electronic Channels

Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce is changing, but Giga does not believe it is evolving toward the apparent simplicity of Internet e-marketplaces through which all B2B e-commerce flows. Traditional B2B sales channels through paper catalogs, telephone call centers, stores and, above all, salespeople will still handle many sales and orders for years to come. The key challenge for a company will be matching the right e-channel with the right customer or supplier relationship. Despite the hype given to Internet e-markets, Giga believes they will only capture 9 percent of total B2B sales orders by 2004 and 25 percent of electronic B2B sales orders. B2B e-commerce is becoming a complex world of multiple electronic channels, in which Internet e-markets co-exist with electronic data interchange (EDI) networks using traditional value-added networks (VANs), with EDI networks using Internet-based electronic trading networks (ETNs), with direct company-to-company systems connections over the Internet and with extranets and private e-markets.