AUTHOR
Lindbäck, Pär; Glimmerholm, Martin

DATE
2000-06-18

DEPARTMENT
Business Administration and Social Sciences / Industrial Marketing

SUMMARY
This thesis investigates electronic commerce (e-commerce) between businesses in a promotional perspective. It means that we have investigated electronic commerce significance within the industrial promotional mix. The thesis identifies the e-commerce characteristics and functions as a virtual exhibition where the planing, implementing and evaluating phases are focused. The efficiency of e-commerce in the industrial communication and selling process, as well as the pros and cons of e-commerce compared to personal selling, has been investigated. We have accomplished a case study of Sandvik Coromant Enterprise, which is an industrial enterprise with developed e-commerce, in order to answer these questions. We perceived that electronic commerce is a relatively important promotional tool, which is expected to get an increased significance in the future. Electronic commerce is seen as a complementary promotional tool to personal selling. It is used in purpose to make routines and communication with the customer easier and more effective. The enterprise had objectives and evaluation criteria in order to accomplish their e-commerce project.

ISSN 1404-5508 / ISRN LTU-SHU-EX--00/113--SE / NR 2000:113