Earlie, re: E-commerce
I'm not really sure what the term means, seems to have a lot of connotations.
For example, while Intel claims they are doing a $billion a month in e-commerce, I doubt if they mean they are negotiating Agreements, T&C's, MFC's, pricing, quantities, initial releases, etc., on the net. (Selling).
My guess is they probably use it for such things as quarterly releases against the Agreements, backlog maintenance, rescheduling, re-mixing, re-pricing, etc. (Things that were probably done electronically even before the net).
Five years from now we'll probably be surprised at what e-commerce entails.
Some areas seem naturals, like catalogue sales and software purchases. Net catalogues can be very dynamic, both in content and presentation. Software sales is already gaining success on the net, and whenever broadband access becomes generally available it will probably grow enormously.
But there are more subtle impacts the net will have on commerce in general. It is a very powerful research tool and already is affecting consumer purchase decisions. (And not always to the benefit of the suppliers). The net is a good educator of consumers. As more and more people use the net as an information tool, those company's without a presence could suffer. The consumer may not make his purchase over the net, but the decision on what to buy could be heavily influenced by the net.
Those products you want to see, feel and experience are probably not good candidates for e-commerce. But the decision on what products you want to see, feel or experience could be determined by the net. |
