Implementing E-Commerce Strategies - by Marc J Epstein (Hardcover)

About the Book

After a decade of treating the topic of e-commerce with awe and confusion, we can now step back and analyze the subject more objectively. From launching an electronic storefront to managing complex supply chain operations, most companies have ventured into e-commerce; but even the best-run bricks-and-mortar enterprises have run into snags in the virtual world. Even mighty Wal-Mart, for example, took its website through several redesigns and sales strategies, and Borders eventually outsourced its Internet sales activites to rival, Amazon. Despite the horror stories of abysmal customer service, lost information, catastrophic meltdowns, and the excesses of the dot.com boom, the Internet is now an essential tool and medium for conducting business. Today, the key question is not whether your firm should invest in e-commerce, but how you can do so most profitably.

In Implementing E-Commerce Strategies, Marc Epstein goes beyond the hype to focus on the practical angles of designing, executing, and successfully managing an e-commerce strategy that works for your company. While many books have addressed the what and why of e-commerce, Epstein zeroes in on the elusive how. Showcasing the experiences of 32 companies (both successes and failures) in a wide variety of industries, he explores such issues as corporate culture and strong leadership from the executive suite, integrating e-commerce into corporate strategy, aligning goals, accountabilities, and performance metrics to support e-commerce initiatives, and building systems that can measure the value of your e-commerce investments. No business can avoid e-commerce--and its capacity for creating spectacular opportunities or wasting precious time and resources. How your firm handles these challenges may very well determine whether or not it will survive.

Book Synopsis

After a decade of treating the topic of e-commerce with awe and confusion, we can now step back and analyze the subject more objectively. From launching an electronic storefront to managing complex supply chain operations, most companies have ventured into e-commerce; but even the best-run bricks-and-mortar enterprises have run into snags in the virtual world. Even mighty Wal-Mart, for example, took its website through several redesigns and sales strategies, and Borders eventually outsourced its Internet sales activites to rival, Amazon. Despite the horror stories of abysmal customer service, lost information, catastrophic meltdowns, and the excesses of the dot.com boom, the Internet is now an essential tool and medium for conducting business. Today, the key question is not whether your firm should invest in e-commerce, but how you can do so most profitably.

In Implementing E-Commerce Strategies, Marc Epstein goes beyond the hype to focus on the practical angles of designing, executing, and successfully managing an e-commerce strategy that works for your company. While many books have addressed the what and why of e-commerce, Epstein zeroes in on the elusive how. Showcasing the experiences of 32 companies (both successes and failures) in a wide variety of industries, he explores such issues as corporate culture and strong leadership from the executive suite, integrating e-commerce into corporate strategy, aligning goals, accountabilities, and performance metrics to support e-commerce initiatives, and building systems that can measure the value of your e-commerce investments. No business can avoid e-commerce--and its capacity for creating spectacular opportunities or wasting precious time and resources. How your firm handles these challenges may very well determine whether or not it will survive.

Review Quotes

?Epstein reviews the conceptual and practical lessons learned over the past decade from e-commerce ventures and applies them to today's business environment. After the Internet bubble burst, solid models emerged in nearly every business sector, and companies integrated e-commerce strategies into their business models. Not much has been written about the new business models of the post-e-commerce age that combines theoretical constructs with case studies supporting active learning. Epstein accomplishes such a synthesis in this well-organized, clearly presented, and most welcome work. He treats e-commerce constructs as components of overall business management and follows up with numerous real-world sectoral case studies that apply the concepts....Extensive notes and bibliography support further investigation and are particularly useful for advanced study. This work is valuable to both professionals and students in any e-commerce course. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduate through professional collections.?-Choice

?New Markets, New Media Web Addendum [T]o be considered for public and academic library collections. To give your collection more depth....[r]ecommended.?-LibraryJournal.com

"New Markets, New Media Web Addendum ÝT¨o be considered for public and academic library collections. To give your collection more depth....Ýr¨ecommended."-LibraryJournal.com

"New Markets, New Media Web Addendum [T]o be considered for public and academic library collections. To give your collection more depth....[r]ecommended."-LibraryJournal.com

"Epstein reviews the conceptual and practical lessons learned over the past decade from e-commerce ventures and applies them to today's business environment. After the Internet bubble burst, solid models emerged in nearly every business sector, and companies integrated e-commerce strategies into their business models. Not much has been written about the new business models of the post-e-commerce age that combines theoretical constructs with case studies supporting active learning. Epstein accomplishes such a synthesis in this well-organized, clearly presented, and most welcome work. He treats e-commerce constructs as components of overall business management and follows up with numerous real-world sectoral case studies that apply the concepts....Extensive notes and bibliography support further investigation and are particularly useful for advanced study. This work is valuable to both professionals and students in any e-commerce course. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduate through professional collections."-Choice

About the Author

MARC J. EPSTEIN is Distinguished Research Professor of Management, Jones Graduate School of Management, Rice University. He is also Visiting Professor and Hansjoerg Wyss Visiting Scholar in Social Enterprise at the Harvard Business School. He previously held positions at Stanford Business School and INSEAD (the European Institute of Business Administration). A specialist in corporate strategy, governance, and performance management, he is the author or coauthor of twelve books (including Counting What Counts and Measuring Corporate Environmental Performance) and over 100 academic and professional papers. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Advances in Management Accounting, and consults to leading corporations and governments around the world.