Plan and monitor your e-commerce investment
Although companies now agree upon the importance of e-business, most are failing to commit the required level of investment, planning and...
Although companies now agree upon the importance of e-business, most are failing to commit the required level of investment, planning and monitoring.
Only 49% of executives questioned said they produced business plans for their e-business projects. Of those, only 50% of companies included metrics that would enable them to indicate the potential success of the projects within the business case.
Investment in e-business projects is still focused on customer-facing activities. Of those questioned 65% have business-to-consumer-based initiatives, while only 23% have business-to-supplier/partner-based projects.
Twenty-five per cent of sellers surveyed by the Boston Consulting Group have decreased prices due to incremental price pressures as customers go online. By 2004 another 50% are expected to have joined them. In response to this threat, sellers intend to cut costs and increase differentiation.
Global Internet Index: top 10 web sites by audience
| Rank | Site | Individual users | % of Web users |
| 1 | Yahoo | 65,907,687 | 54% |
| 2 | AOL Web sites | 62,349,504 | 51% |
| 3 | MSN | 50,042,747 | 41% |
| 4 | Microsoft | 42,793,223 | 35% |
| 5 | Lycos | 32,584,584 | 27% |
| 6 | [email protected] | 28,357,289 | 23% |
| 7 | GO Network | 23,132,996 | 19% |
| 8 | About.com | 17,217,778 | 14% |
| 9 | AltaVista | 16,803,118 | 14% |
| 10 | Time Warner | 15,975,939 | 13% |
Yahoo continues to be the world's favourite Internet brand. The huge portal companies continue to dominate global surfing habits, with Yahoo, AOL, MSN and Lycos occupying the top five spots
Global Internet Index: top 10 Internet activities
| Rank | Category | Individual users | % of Web users |
| 1 | Search engines/portals | 107,543,846 | 88.19% |
| 2 | Telecom/Internet services | 78,516,293 | 64.39% |
| 3 | Entertainment | 65,880,257 | 54.02% |
| 4 | Personal/Business Elec & S/W | 56,112,827 | 46.01% |
| 5 | News and information | 55,739,404 | 45.71% |
| 6 | Online communities | 50,516,785 | 41.43% |
| 7 | Directories/classified | 38,362,416 | 31.46% |
| 8 | Finance/insurance/investment | 32,003,267 | 26.24% |
| 9 | Family and lifestyles | 31,307,305 | 25.67% |
| 10 | Corporate information | 28,563,471 | 23.42% |
Portals are the most popular type of Web site - accessed by nearly 90% of active Web users in July. The next most popular are Telecom/Internet services sites, with 64%
Top 10 UK Websites
| Rank | Site |
| 1 | Time Computers |
| 2 | No.10 Downing Street |
| 3 | Dell Computers |
| 4 | GlaxoWellcome |
| 5 | British Airways |
| 6 | Tiny Computers |
| 7 | Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food |
| 8 | Barclays, BBC, DHL |
| 9 | Arthur Andersen |
| 10 | Tesco |
OCS Consulting ranked a group of 100 UK and global Web sites on content, contact information, visuals, security and navigation. Tony Blair scored a creditable second place with the No 10 Downing Street Web site
