E-COMMERCE TRENDS AND FORECASTS

E-COMMERCE TRENDS AND FORECASTS

Studies of web usage and e-commerce growth show that the web is a growing market. All indications are that the web user population will continue to grow rapidly in the next 5 to 6 years. In addition even though the web population is currently dominated by English speakers the number of users in other parts of the world is growing. The web has already become an important part of the millions of people’s lives.

THE RAPIDLY GROWING WEB

Let’s take a look at some of the statistics that illustrate the growth of the web which gathers information from a variety of freely available sources on the web

Ø  In 1999 almost half of the internet users worldwide were outside of the U.S  and Canada , the number for 2000 will probably push this over the 50 percent mark.

Ø  Women are closing the gap in internet shopping. In 1995 the represented about 36 percent of internet shoppers, today the number is 41 percent.

Ø  In 1999, 40 percent of the adult population of the U.S and Canada were using the internet regularly. That number has been growing steadily since 1995.

Ø  The average user spends 5 hours and 28 minutes per week on the web

DOMINANT TRENDS IN THE EVOLUTION OF E-COMMERCE

As use of the web for purchasing goods becomes more widespread and global there are several dominant trends that will shape the evolution of e-commerce internationalization, standardization, personalization, instant fulfillment, mobile internet access, custom pricing and intelligent. The following sections describe these trends in detail.

INTERNATIONALIZATION

The expectation is that the user population of the web will continue to grow very rapidly and become more global. This internationalization of the web means that businesses conducting e-commerce on the web need to address the needs of non-English speakers if they want to access this global market. More information on the needs of non-English speakers can be found at the W3Cs internationalization site.

STANDARDIZATION

The growing number of electronic transaction on the web also requires the adoption of e-commerce standards by every company that wants to be a major player in the marketplace. These standards include data interchange and such user protection as meaningful privacy statements and trustworthy security system.

PERSONALIZATION

Personalization refers to the growing practice of gathering information about established customers and providing a personalized web site for them when they return to your site. Information on products or topics in which users are interested cab be presented as soon as they arrive at your site. This helps build loyalty. Amazone.com is a good example of a site that tailors information to the user.

INSTANT FULFILLMENT

A trend in the purchase of digital products, such as software is instant fulfillment. Instant fulfillment means that the user receives the product almost immediately after he or she purchases it—via download from the web. Not only have online software venders begun to offer the services, but e-book venders such as Barnes and Noble are also conducting order fulfillment via download.

MOBILE INTERNET ACCESS

Many people believe that wireless internet access using handheld devices, such as personal digital assistants and mobile phones, will become more popular than using the web through desktop computers.

Because of the limited graphical and processing capabilities of these devices, a special internet protocol called the wireless application protocol has been development to provide versions of web sites that are suitable for these devices. To accommodate the growing number of users who will want to purchase products via their wireless devices, e-commerce businesses need to plan to implement WAP in the near future. Some of the internet businesses that are taking advantage of the wireless trend are providers of services that help web sites make their content viewable on wireless devices. The leading such service is currently Avantgo.

CUSTOM PRICING

Custom pricing is being pioneered by Priceline.com an e-commerce site where a user can specially the price he or she wants to pay for a particular service. Currently the site offers airline tickets, hotel rooms, new cars , home financing , rental cars and long distance service. Service providers review each request and if one of the providers accepts, the user is usually bound to following through with the purchase. This is a novel business concept enabled by e-commerce on the web

INTELLIGENT AGENTS

Intelligent agents are software that acts automatically on behalf of the user. These agents will eventually result in a vast improvement in internet searching. Because of intelligent agent ability to understand concepts and search for related topics, this agent is better able to provide relevant search results for users. A good example of intelligent agent technology in use today is Apple Computers Sherlock functionally.