Six factors reshaping the future of e-commerce today

¶ … Future of E-Commerce

The six factors of Internet access, taxation of transactions, privacy concerns when using websites, Internet security, intellectual property rights and free speech are redefining the direction of e-commerce today. Each of these areas are briefly discussed and analyzed in this paper.

Internet Access

The Digital Divide exists globally, affecting some nations more than others. The fact that in the U.S. For example those in counties that have a per capita income near the poverty level cannot gain access to the Internet is a case in point. Even in the most affluent nations of the world, there are still major gaps in availability of Internet access. This has a major impact on the availability of e-commerce websites and systems and is making mobile e-commerce more critical over the long-run than before.

Privacy

With the continual maturation of Facebook and its privacy settings programs and initiatives, this area of the Internet is going to be the critical link to building trust with e-commerce customers over the long-term. The focus on privacy will become so acute that the use of authentication and validation of people on Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites will eventually give way to entire services based on protecting ones' reputation online.

Security

One of the greatest impediments to e-commerce growth continues to be the lack of consistent security across computing platforms, Web browsers and programming languages. This is a continual threat to the loss of transaction and credit card data as well. The need for a consistent and comprehensive framework would do much to alleviate the confusion on these areas (Kesh, Ramanujan, Nerur, 2002).

Intellectual Property

The Internet has created an entirely different aspect of property validation and rights. The ownership of intellectual property (IP) online, from content and online systems to integration technologies is also an enabler of overall e-commerce. The role of IP is also serving to more clearly delineate how selling and services systems online manage part of the sales process and selling cycle. IP will continue to be an emerging area of law and will eventually become a catalyst of how companies build and support their e-commerce systems over the long-term. IP is also setting the foundation for how content is going to be purposed across systems throughout a given company, network and industry as well.

Free Speech

The role of the Internet as the catalyst of free speech is amply seen in the Egyptian revolution and the simmering revolutions in neighboring countries throughout the Middle East. Free speech however is often controlled by governments through restrictions they place on Internet access. An example is how China uses Internet restrictions to control free speech of the citizens, especially as it relates to the current revolutions throughout the Middle East. All of these restrictions however drastically reduce the total reach of any e-commerce site in nations that do no honor free speech. Having a multichannel strategy to be able to reach consumers through as many means as possible is therefore critical.