E-Commerce ©David Whiteley/McGraw-Hill, Electronic Commerce: let a thousand flowers bloom

E-Commerce ©David Whiteley/McGraw-Hill, The Full Set  e-Commerce includes:  Formal business-to-business transactions using EDI;  Electronic markets used by commercial intermediaries;  Informal business-to-business transactions using Internet e-Commerce;  Consumer transactions with business using Internet e-Commerce.

E-Commerce ©David Whiteley/McGraw-Hill, The Full Set  Developments in e-Commerce have been linked with network and other IT developments:  Networks within the organisation  Inter-organisational links  EDI/electronic markets  EPOS  Just in Time  Public access networks  Internet/WWW  Home Computers

E-Commerce ©David Whiteley/McGraw-Hill, The Full Set  Overall, the available IT and e-Commerce facilities add up to a full set – an e-Commerce technology applicable to each category of trade exchange.

E-Commerce ©David Whiteley/McGraw-Hill, Technology Adoption  The history of technological adoption is a chequered one. Examples of this include:  Interactive videotext for information services and e-Commerce application.  Telework, which was to close offices and factories, cut traffic and pollution and create flexible and fulfilling lives.  EDI, where a MIT report famously said ‘EDI is not a choice... it is the inevitable way that business will be done’.  All have made a mark – just not a significant as the initial claims

E-Commerce ©David Whiteley/McGraw-Hill, Technology Adoption  Internet e-Commerce has been greeted in much the same hype:  Bill Gates of Microsoft: ‘The rise of the Internet and the increase in subscribers to online services is a fantastic thing... virtually all agree that by the end of the decade the Internet will be a significant business channel.’  Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister: ‘To British business I deliver a pretty blunt massage: if you don’t see the Internet as an opportunity, it will be a threat.... If you’re not exploiting the opportunities of e-Commerce you could go bankrupt.’

E-Commerce ©David Whiteley/McGraw-Hill, Technology Adoption ‘Everyone agrees that electronic commerce is going to be big, very big or enormous. But nobody knows when. There is considerable disagreement about the historic impact of electronic commerce, let alone the future one. Although all commentators present forecasts for the short-term which contain truly eye-catching growth, their figures fail to achieve anything remotely approaching the size of existing modes of trade. And yet no commentator doubts the power of electronic commerce to challenge those existing modes. In order to explain this paradox, many observers allude to technical, cost and infrastructure impediments. While playing their part in impeding adoption, these alleged impediments have arguably limited validity. For electronic commerce to deliver its full promise, there will have to be business, social and cultural changes and these will take more than two or three years to complete.’ (Emery, 1999)

E-Commerce ©David Whiteley/McGraw-Hill, Integrating the Supply Chain  Online ordering requires rapid delivery  Rapid delivery requires a responsive, efficient supply chain  … and that requires EDI (or something similar)

E-Commerce ©David Whiteley/McGraw-Hill, e-Choice  And finally, how will the future look:  Will the local supermarket be boarded up?  Has the assistant in the corner store switched to a job with a parcel delivery company?  probably not...  Will you still use:  The late night corner shop?  A bookshop where you can look at a real book and take it away with you?  We will use e-Commerce for what it does well and a ‘real’ shop for other needs:  ‘Let a thousand flowers bloom.’... and remember, some people even like shopping!

E-Commerce ©David Whiteley/McGraw-Hill, e-Choice? ‘Jim drives back, passing on the way two boarded- up supermarkets and the old shopping mall on the edge of town that was converted to a virtual reality fun park three years ago. There were still a lot of derelict superstores and shopping centres. They had become real eye-sores with their crumbling brickwork and car parks sprouting weeds. So many of them had failed to recognise the full impact of the digital revolution or seen it too late. The new ‘virtual’ grocery chains like InterGrocer and SmartShop had stolen a large share of the market.’ (Cope N. 1996)