Consumer and supplier relationships in Internet Essay

The Internet is one of the great inventions of human kind. Go along with the development of science and technology, Internet changed the face of the world. Especially, in business, Internet plays a vital role because it connects all factors to create the success of business. Internet links customers and suppliers into the stable and mutual benefit’s relationship. Firstly, Internet changes the relationship between customers and suppliers from indirect to direct. It helps to eliminate the â€Å"middle – man† to connect directly the customers and suppliers. In the past, there was only way to buy a product that customers went to the store, where they have contract with the suppliers to provide goods for them. Therefore, customers and suppliers never met together in the real meaning. This process increased a lot of costs. However, when Internet developed, customers and suppliers have opportunities to meet together. To buy the stuff, customers can order directly from suppliers through Internet. By this way, not only does the cost decrease, but also the price is more reasonable. The benefit of Internet created the formation and development of E-commerce and net marketplace. According to page 373 in the textbook, â€Å"online consumer sales grew to an estimated $362 billion in 2012, an increase of more than 15 percent over 2010 (including travel services and digital downloads), with 150 million people purchasing online and an additional 34 million shopping and gathering information but not purchasing† (Laudon, K., & Laudon, J., 2014). Secondly, once Internet developed, the relationship between customers and suppliers is push to improve to the partner relationship. Customer became the partner of supplier. The position of both customers and suppliers are equal. Customers don’t depend on the supplier; in contrast, they are more powerful in choosing their suitable suppliers. Thirdly, it increases the satisfaction and quality of customer service. Nowadays, purchasing and exchanging became easier than ever. To attract customers, suppliers have to take care of their customer’s demand and tend to satisfy it because customers have a lot of choices among a thousand of sellers. Customers can take advantage of price, quality as well as model of product. Thus, to make this relationship become a long term collaboration, besides the diversification of products, suppliers must focus on their service to  keep their customers closer. Reference: Laudon, K., & Laudon, J. (2014). Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm (13 Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.