It seems that almost every article in the e-commerce space references or touches on the impact of Amazon, and for good reason. It is now the largest e-commerce company in the world and largest retailer by market capitalisation.
Although, the focus of the attention has been on its business-to-consumer (B2C) business, it has made significant in-roads into the business-to-business (B2B) space, where much of the industrial gas business operates. While many of the Tier One, regional and independent players have implemented e-commerce solutions to varying degrees, a significant portion of our industry has not taken the ‘first’ step to enable websites with e-commerce solutions for customers or offer antiquated solutions for doing business – both of which may put portions of their business at greater risk to competition.
This article will provide some background and the ‘state of the union’ on e-commerce, why it should be implemented in the near term, and the key steps to get started.
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