E-Commerce - there are challenges for e-commerce to grow in future, it will grow but the growth will vary from country to country and affect the online market at various time periods and the main question is how fast will it grow and what will be the scop
In the history of the development of e-commerce, innovations such as WWW and Internet are seen at the heart of understanding the subject. Over the past twenty years Internet has become the lifeline of any business. Current trends show that the use of Internet, smart phones and the confidence of the people in using their cards online are growing exponentially. Experts such as AMR research, Jupiter Media, Emarketer.com predict a promising and glorious future for the e-commerce in the 21st century. The total volume of e-commerce has been growing by 15 to 25 percent every year and will continue to grow. However, there are challenges for e-commerce to grow in future, it will grow but the growth will vary from country to country and affect the online market at various time periods and the main question is how fast will it grow and what will be the scope of its growth in the future 5 years. These are the main questions that will be addressed in this essay, which will focus on three interrelated broad themes that e-commerce involve: society, business and technology. It is a period of reinvention involving the extension of Internet technologies, and the discovery of new business models based on consumer-generated content and social networking. While a variety of definitions of the term e-commerce have been suggested this essay will use the term suggested by Cabinet Office in 1999:
‘E-commerce is the exchange of information across electronic networks, at any stage in the supply chain, whether within an organization, between businesses, between businesses and consumers or between the public and private sector, whether paid or unpaid. ‘
To begin with, lets look at technological factors that provide infrastructure and will define future of e-commerce. Internet, digital computing, communications technology, cloud and mobile computing – the fundamental shifts in the way we communicate, are becoming stronger as the prices are falling and access is becoming more available through the growing number of wireless Internet devices such as iPhone, iPad, Android GI and Blackberry and the growing number of Wireless Internet Connections such as Wi-Fi, WiMax and 3G telephone. The number of Internet users in 2011 was over 2 billion and is predicted to reach almost 5 billion by 2020, which is more than twice of last years’ figure and is expected to come from Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and other emerging countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia. Growth in Internet population through globe will definitely boost international expansion for most online retailers. Although, now Apple is the only online retailer in the US, which operates a transactional Web site for these countries, I believe that more companies will understand the advantages of being global. Developing and underdeveloped and even the poorer populations will have an access to the Internet due to falling costs and exponential improvements in technology, through the fulfillment of the Moore’s law. This will decrease digital divide and enable new opportunities for e-commerce to grow globally since 80% of population will have devices that enable e-commerce. The information industries grow 18% in constant dollars each year, despite the fact that you can get twice as much each year for the same price. People didn’t buy iPods for $15,000 each 15 years ago, which is what they would have cost. Social networks weren’t feasible six or seven years ago. Every industry is gradually transforming into an information industry. Health and medicine are making that transformation now, given the significant investment by Google and Wal-Mart to capture the vast potential of opportunities between healthcare providers and patients there is a great future for the industry. Therefore, most of the economy will be information technology in the 2020. Payment systems are a major aspect of e-commerce. Lots of new innovative ways of payment were introduced during the history and development of e-commerce. Although, lots of them are not technological, they are connected with technological capabilities such as authentication and verification. PayPal is a good example of company which have succeeded in leading developments across the globe; however, since e-commerce is reaching expansion the truly global e-payment standards that can satisfy the whole world are yet to be developed. With the development of mobile commerce the number of new payment systems developed such as ‘Square’ launched in Autumn 2010. And yet I think the area of e-payment will be developed even more in future, since this is the major factor that influences consumers’ buying behavior and helps online market to grow at full potential.
