The future of e-commerce - analysis piece

By Paul Wellings, Head of Media, with e-commerce financials software house Access Accounting Ltd, Colchester, Essex. http://www.access-accounts.com

Look into a crystal ball, consider e-commerce, and the American phrase You aint seen nothing yet!" springs readily to mind.

E-commerce is only five years old in the USA. The UK is about two years behind the States, but rapidly closing the gap.

The business to business sector is likely to see the biggest explosion in the industry, ultimately accounting for at least 80% of all business activity.

Monumental forces are at work and there will be huge winners and huge losers. The huge winners in the e-commerce explosion will be those companies moving all their supply and delivery chains to the web.

The losers will come to light in the shakeout of the early Internet start-up companies. The values of the bubble.com companies will reach more realistic levels on the stock exchange, and a number of first wave companies will go to the wall probably in the next 18 months.

Comparisons with staking a claim in the American gold rush still apply with e-commerce, but now with a global infrastructure it is freely open to all comers. You dont have to buy your own shovel for the gold rush now. Never before have there been so many potential competitors around the world.

Pundits are saying that it is not just the Big Brands backed by limitless advertising that will win. The web has enabled giants to go global, but has also enabled consumers and every business to respond globally.

This is where the real battle begins, because even the smallest local business can now go global overnight. Tomorrows 'Big Brands were probably not even trading yesterday!

Managing Director of leading e-commerce financials software house Access Accounting Ltd Alistair OReilly said, If we look into our crystal ball we see a continued e-commerce explosion and know we will continually innovate with new products and solutions. The Internet is like Darwinism on steroids. You evolve or get eliminated."