Brief look at the future of e-commer
Future and growth of E-Commerce
E-commerce has been evolving at an unbelievable pace. Only about a decade ago we have heard the term of ‘e-commerce’ and now it had become so attach to every business enterprise and even individuals at home are catching fast with this idea. E-commerce is a wide scope and it offers many divisions such as e-banking, electronic data interchange (EDI) and online shopping. It is the business-to business (B2B) that we’re mainly focused on. All available fact shows that e-business is developing rapidly with turnover reported to have doubled between 1998 and 1999.
Most companies view e-commerce or more specifically, B2B as a tool to reach customers whether domestically or regionally. It involves selling, marketing or advertising products or services electronically. It’s seen as an opportunity to earn profit. As for customers or individuals, we seen more of convenience offered and also a more cost-efficient means of shopping. Overall, every parties acknowledge the need to keep in pace with this technology advancement and understand that it offers unprecedented opportunities.
Let us first look at the revolution of e-commerce as depicted from the graph below:
We certainly noticed the amazing revolution of e-commerce and the amount of monies associated with this technology. There are increasing number of companies and individuals becoming involved in this new trend. With the opportunities and information it offers, the trend is certainly to continue to zoom upwards. It is undeniable that e-commerce has become very important and established in our society; in a global scale. The growth of E-Commerce in a global scale can be seen in the chart below. An annual growth of 92% globally is definitely implies the significance of E-Commerce in our daily activities.
The growth of E-commerce is very closely linked to the Internet and information society. This can be seen when Microsoft kicked off the e-commerce extravaganza when it releases Windows 2000 in February 2000. This is followed shortly by Intel with its release of 64-bit Itanium chip.
The future of e-commerce depends on the attitude of the people involved in this process and the pace in which technologies and related areas developed. E-commerce observers and futurists have come up with possible visions of e-commerce development. The visions are discussed are:
1) The Netopia concept
This concept is arises from the idea of Utopia and the network. Advocates of this concept propose that global network problem will be resolved through the Net’s embrace. E-commerce will be the true mass medium, offering the best in client services. In 2003, Apple Computer will release the first ‘wearable’ computer and in 2005, Sony will come out with a technology that integrates a telephone, television set and a computer in one revolutionary device, this technology will be called [next page]