9 Differences in the web

1. AVAILABILITY
Availability stands for being able to take the service, or buy the product in the place, time, hour and price you want it and need it. To be able to contact a physician when you need it, where you need it and without waiting could be defined as truly having a physician available.

Colmedica Medicina Prepagada is a prepaid medical service company in Colombia, Latin America. Keeping in mind that Colombia is a country where the processes are usually slow, and obtaining information is pretty complex, in 2012 launched a new revolutionary tool in their website, which enables the customer to realize a broad orientation on any health concern by video call online medical orientation.

The video call can be done from the company’s website 24/7 from wherever the customer needs it or without leaving home and with the conviction that a medic professional is concern about customers’ inquiries. This availability has allowed the company to have lower costs on minor issues such as a colds without letting the customer to feel he or she is not important. On the other hand for the customer has being a relief to know they can be primarily evaluated without traffic or waiting hours. In the case that the doctor finds out the customer needs a more detailed evaluation he will make the arrangements so that a doctor can make a delivery visit or will send an ambulance when needed. www.colmedica.com

2. GLOBAL REACH
Global reach refers to the fact that e-commerce technology allows commercial transactions to cross cultural and national boundaries in an easier, faster and cheaper way than traditional physical commerce. One perfect example of how a company can have a market approximately equal to the size of the world’s online population is BorderFree. This is a company that enables U.S. retailers to transact with consumers in more than 100 countries around the world. BorderFree offers a complete service without either changing customer experience or company’s infrastructure. Their solutions include every aspect of the international order lifecycle, taking into account cultural considerations. The range of services include multi-currency pricing and payment processing, landed-cost calculation, customs clearance and brokerage, global logistics and international fraud management.

Some examples of companies that expanded internationally through a partnership with BorderFree are:
• Aéropostale started as a mall based retailer. With ecommerce expansion it created a website and delivered to the US and Canada. After its partnership with BorderFree this specialty retailer is able to deliver to China, Colombia, Brazil, and Chile within other countries even though they haven’t open a store in any of those countries.
• Overstock.com is an online discount retailer based in the US that sells a broad range of products. After the partnership with BorderFree they sell internationally from the same website. And in recent Nielsen State of the Media: Consumer Usage Report placed Overstock.com among the top five most visited mass merchandiser websites.

3. UNIVERSAL STANDARDS
Universal standards is the key feature that allows companies to achieve a global reach in an efficient way. This is because the universal standards make that web playing rules are exactly the same in every single nation around the globe. A good example about how this universal standards work is www.shopify.ca/. Shopify is a Canadian company that helps entrepreneurs around the world to set up a shop online. This is an example of how universal standards work: even though it is a Canadian company, its knowledge, technology, and services deliver solutions for one single person in South Africa that wishes to sell wooden portraits in his/her nation.

4. RICHNESS
Richness refers to ability a merchant has to adjust the message to individual users. This e-commerce merchants are allowed to sell items that before was almost impossible without a