Development and Future Perspective of Electronic Commerce (Term Paper Sample)

Development And Future Perspective of Electronic CommerceStudent NameSubjectInstitutionDate
E-commerce, commonly known as electronic trade refers to selling and buying of services or products over electronic systems like the internet as well as other computer networks. The number of business transactions done electronically has increased significantly since the invention and spread of Internet. A wide range of trade is carried out in this manner, drawing on and spurring innovations in supply chain management, Internet marketing, electronic funds transfer, electronic data interchange (EDI), online transaction processing, automated data gathering systems and automated inventory management systems. Current electronic commerce normally uses the WWW (World Wide Web) at least at a given point in the activities’ lifecycle, even though it can include a wider variety of technologies like email. Therefore, this essay describes electronic commerce by pointing out its development as well as its future perspective.[Bakos, Yannis. "The emerging role of electronic marketplaces on the Internet." Communications of the ACM 41, no. 8 (1998): 35-42.]
The beginning of electronic commerce can be traced from periods when businesses first used telegram, telex, fax and telephone to carry out commercial activities. During early 1980’s, a significant effort to normalize business information transfer digitally was attained using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). At this stage, connections between industries and businesses had to be arranged in advance, based on a VAN (Value Added Network). This improved the effectiveness of carrying out business but had partial commercial viability due to the unreasonable cost of connectivity. With the introduction of open computer technology and commercialization of Internet in the early 1990’s, connectivity became inexpensive not only for individuals but also for businesses. These interconnections formed the WWW (World Wide Web). The proliferation of websites and influential search engines turned the World Wide Web into a valuable information resource, drawing browsers on a universal scale. Businesses started to reach their potential clientele via the internet by giving them product catalogue and marketing information online.[Rao, S. S., Glenn Metts, and Carlo A. Monge. "Electronic commerce development in small and medium sized enterprises: A stage model and its implications." Business Process Management Journal 5, no. 10 (2003): 67-69. doi: 10.1108/14637150310461378.]
In the mid 1990’s, World Wide Web evolved from a mere information resource to a virtual environment for electronic commerce transactions which needed an interactive and more secure environment. The interactive and secured features changed electronic commerce transactions from one buyer-seller connection to a several buyers-sellers trade. Furthermore, websites could be personalized as well as customized. Businesses also started implementing wireless technology to the internet. The current need of electronic commerce is to allow business to business trade that requires interoperability in the entire business and within a business project. The current expansion of electronic commerce expands across enterprises, industries and businesses, has opened up the chance and barriers for a variety of websites which can give online integrative management of business activities; the electronic business process.[Schafer, J. B., Joseph A. Konstan, and John Riedl. "E-Commerce Recommendation Applications." Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery 8, no. 10 (2001):]
A report by revealed that electronic commerce would grow by 47 percent by 2020. This percentage shows the growth rate and what the coming years hold in electronic commerce. Due to expected technological development, all businesses will either be ecommerce oriented or cease to exist in the coming years. With the increasing popularity of Social Network Sites (SNS), approximately all businesses will use e-commerce to help customers rate and suggest the appropriate buying to their friends. This will improve the value to merchants as well as customers. The same report revealed that approximately 38.4% of the traffic in the entire streets of the world is young people aging15-24. This elucidates that young age are getting a hang of electronic buying and the activity is here to expand and benefit more. Presently, various applications and services are invented to bring additional benefits to consumers.[Storey, Veda C., Detmar W. Straub, Kathy A. Stewart, and Richard J. Welke. "A conceptual investigation of the e-commerce industry." Communications of the ACM 43, no. 7 (2000): 117-123.]
Some of the innovative ideas to be attained in the near future include the Live Link Video, which enables the traders to develop and adopt videos where consumers can browse on the hyperlink hot spots to receive either product information or be in a position of purchasing the commodity elaborated in the video content. With the rapid technological advancement, it is also anticipated that Flip Seek, which is a form of electronic commerce will be widely used in business. An interactive film development company is currently working on this project, and it is anticipated that ideas and applications like this emerge in large numbers. With the constant technological inventions and innovation, the electronic commerce is expected to be the order of payment in next coming years. PayPal is developing a Storefront Widget, which will enable consumers to implant implicit PayPal storefronts into social profiles, blogs, sites and anyplace in which Hyper Text Makeup Language (HTML) can be implanted in the code. Besides, Mobile payment is predicted to gain popularity in...