Brief look at the future of e-commer
for business. This future prospect is supported by certain initiatives taken to underpin and strengthen E-Commerce as the backbone of all the various media. Such examples of initiatives taken are indicated below:
1. Increasing high speed connection.
- High speed cable modems and DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) service, has been as instrumental as the PC in delivering to homes and businesses the larger hunks of data that Internet web-sites offer. Before long, streaming content will likely become a standard part of your Web experience, this will definitely attract more users or Internet surfers to online. In a survey by Forrester Research, 20% of Website owners say they offer broadband content; and a high percentage of 74% plan to do so within two years.
2. Introduction of XML
- XML is a Web page coding language, similar in a sense to HTML, but much more robust and functional in supporting client-server transactions. XML has been seen by many as especially applicable for e-commerce, because it can allow online merchants to set up dynamic and flexible online stores without the need for complex database programming. Major players in the market such as Netscape and Microsoft have agreed on standard-based implementation of XML to support most upcoming versions of Internet Browser.
3. Peer-to peer file sharing
- The cost of implementing high speed modem and DSL may be costly and unjustified financially for certain firms especially new and small firms. Napster has introduced a new technology called the peer-to peer file sharing for those low band-with sites. The basic idea behind Napster was to harness the power of the sea of connected computers on the Web, each with its pond of disk space. This means the sharing of a single file or servers by few client computers (or nodes).
4. Location-based marketing
- Currently E-Commerce is synonymous with PC and browser-based interaction. However, in the near future Web-enabled mobile phones and other handheld devices will become a common, if not dominant mode of accessing e-commerce applications. Commerce applications will by then evolve to track the location of mobile consumers using GPRS service. The location information will then be used to guide the consumers to nearby stores. If the consumer requests a service, say a taxi, drivers in the vicinity can be alerted.
5. New and sophisticated software to better support the dynamic E-Commerce application and environment.
There are still scopes for the progress of E-Commerce in the future. In fact, with all the new technologies being introduced to enhance business transaction, the future of E-Commerce is definitely promising.