The Future of eCommerce
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by
Riyaj Shaik
According to
a new study from the Center for Research in Electronic Commerce, eCommerce will
become the industrial revolution of the 21st Century.
The
Internet economy continues to grow robustly, with both new and established companies
reaping profits online. eBusiness still has huge untapped potential, according
to Anitesh Barua, associate professor of information systems at the center. He
believes that its effect on our industrial economy will be as significant as the
shift from the agricultural economy of the 17th Century.
Barua
discussed the Dell-sponsored study during the company's press gathering in San
Francisco.
"Dot-coms are a visible but small part of
the Internet Economy, and their failings are overplayed in the media," he
said. "The dot-com economy is not crumbling. A great many dot-com businesses
are doing well. They're running with sound business practices, and they're doing
it without cash from venture capitalists."
In September,
the center completed a study, which supports this claim. They accomplished this
with help from more than 1,200 businesses in the U.S. and Europe. The bulk of
the study focuses on the positive impact the Internet is having on businesses,
big and small. This isn't just about selling something online. It's about companies
taking business processes onto the Internet, streamlining them and increasing
profits.
For example, large companies that implemented new
Internet technologies -- such as improved supply-chain processes - saw improvements
of 13 percent to 21 percent in financial performance measures. For multibillion-dollar
companies, that's a huge savings that can improve the bottom line, as well as
the economy as a whole.
