Electronic commerce consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. Nowadays, uses of e-commerce have grown rapidly due to the spread of the Internet and it provides certain benefits and conveniences which will be discussed as follow.

Cycle time is the total time needed to move a unit of work from the beginning to the end of a physical process. In the aspect of e-commerce, cycle time refers to the amount of time where customer place an order and receiving the goods. E-procurement is one tool purchasing uses to reduce costs and improve cycle time. E-procurement is define as a business-to-business or business-to-consumer or business-to-government purchase and sale of supplies and services through the Internet as well as other information and networking systems. By applying e-procurement in the organization, it reduces cycle time by a direct system. For example, a suppler may have an agreement with a customer to automatically ship materials when the customer's stock level reaches a low point. It reduces not only the cycle time but also other costs like purchase cost as when transacting with a supplier electronically, suppliers are more likely to give discounts, because their own administration costs are less.

E-commerce also improves employees’ empowerment. Empowerment of employee simply means giving the employee authority to make decisions. In applying e-commerce in the organization, it allow employee to get access to internet to search for any information they need in order to support their decisions. Besides, employee can directly respond to the customer on any complaint or any customers' product information requests. As a result, company tends to give more power and flexibility to employee in conducting their work and it will increases employee’s job satisfaction as they will feel like part of the organization.

Lastly, e-commerce facilitates customer support by providing customer the opportunity to shop conveniently. It allows customer to search for any information regarding the product or services easily and place any of their complaint, or request for any further product information. For example, “Frequently Asked Question (FAQ)” is where customer may seek answers for their enquiries. Besides, company’s information is provided in the website and customer can call in to the customer service department or send e-mails to the company. As a result, it may improves company’s services and increase in sales as it convenient customers by getting the goods directly and it enhance customer support.


References

http://4ecom.blogspot.com/2008/06/discuss-how-e-commerce-can-reduce-cycle.html

http://loss1987.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-e-commerce-can-reduce-cycle-time.html

http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:WWNyR9t4woQJ:emarketplace.lgaq.asn.au/lgaq/resources/e-Marketplace/e-procurement%2520Benefits.doc+e-procurement+reduce+cost&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&client=opera

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-procurement

http://milkmom.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-e-commerce-can-reduce-cycle-time_13.html

http://ecommercesite.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/reduction-of-cycle-time-improve-employees-empowerment-facilitate-customer-support-through-e-commerce/