The world is a global village, this is stated with regards to the way the world is connected from all aspects be it business or personal, every era is defined by a trend, and this era is defined by its globalized economy popularly known as ‘globalization’ and this trend shift started with the inception of the world wide web (www) for the global audience in the year 1993 that sparked a revolution that is still growing by each passing day, creating new trends in the shape of online shopping, social media platforms, video chats and much more and quintessentially laid the basis of a globalized interconnected world at all times.
The magnitude of the global impact of the internet can be gauged from the fact that every 2 in 5 people globally use the World Wide Net, the first ever webpage was written by Sir Tim Berners that was (“WorldWideWeb.app”) and the first Web server (“httpd“) and by the end of the year in 1990, the first Web page was served on the open internet, and, the people outside of CERN were invited to join this new Web community in 1991 (World Wide Web Foundation), the World Wide Web is just like any brand and has a product life cycle, and thus, has been evolving ever since its launch, and is still in the growth stage, the impact that the www have, has forced lifestyle changes, communication trends and most importantly the way business is done that has been evolving with rapid growth and success of the e-commerce business platform.
Internet is still relatively young considering since 1990 till now, it is only 26 years of operational evolution and with technology leading the way in this era in terms of everything we do, the future of www as the main tool of connectivity and its potential growth is beyond measure, some of the future predictions for the www i.e. internet discussed with 1,500 internet experts as stated in an article in PBS news stated some interesting observations (Shirvell), the future of internet will be impactful, as just like electricity it will be impacting everyday life, the health care sector will be one of the major beneficiaries with the evolution of augmented reality and wearable devices for monitoring and sharing feedback on health, similarly education sector will be transformed on a more digital scale, with a focus on online learning with digital tools, which will be a natural evolution just like brick and mortar stores converting into online stores.
AI (artificial intelligence) will be able to connect consumers in terms of behavioral patterns and the world in a more connected and intelligent manner, the future impact on weather, sports and banking will also be the feature of future internet technology, lastly, the future will be diminishing of borders and countries with common interest bonding beyond the current nation state control referred to as ‘Ubernet’ (Anderson & Rainie), the future of internet technologies has impacted already, by having new and innovative safety systems in cars, mobile technology, health related tool in fridge and much more, as all aspects of our lives is affected by the internet technology.
One of the legacies of the www is the launch of web shopping portal systems that created a revolution in how the business operated and helped the companies to create new markets and segments on a global level, with the systems and processes evaluated over a period of time, to develop relevant security protocols for the operations to be conducted in a secure manner, the brick and mortar stores acknowledged the advantages and launched websites with electronic payment services features, and the first instance of buying grocery online was initiated by Safeway and Albertsons, by the year 2000 that in essence was the last year of the dot com era many companies suffered the consequences of the dot com disintegration, however the system remained to grow and evolve, the numbers in 2001 for the business to business model (B2B) was $700 billion (e-commerce-land).
The evolution of e-commerce can be gauged from the fact that after 21 years of operations the e-commerce giant Amazon, have developed the capacity to deliver same day and drone technology for operations in shipping, the future of the e-commerce sector is dynamic given that on a global level the retailers are coming up with new ideas and technological innovations, taking the system to the next level in terms of new market opportunities.
The e-commerce is growing at a very quick rate, the retail sales using this e-commerce portal stands at 7%, the future looks bright with new leaders presumed to topple the established names in the sector (Puri), one of the major opportunity for e-commerce as a sector in the future is consumer fragmentation that will focus on a consumer niche for pushing sales, the system will work with targeting consumers with access to different media devices and through that the behavioral patterns will be researched to drive sales by targeting specific areas of motivations.
The sales push will be led by ‘effective and interesting’ content, the content will drive sales in terms of creating a pull effect through branding and push effect through marketing; therefore, it is imperative that the future focus will be more on words that connects effectively with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) process, which will be the key in targeting the consumer’s content as per their behavioral profile, social media is leading the way in consumer interaction, new methods and innovations will lead the way to connect consumers to buy directly from the social media platform to limit the distance and competition effectively (Fridman), also creating new business avenues with tactical promotion will be the key to generate sales, and mobile technology will be greatly utilized in terms of being the first interactive tool to connect with the target market.
New technologies will enable consumers to use their credit cards to tap on their mobiles that will provide the payment information, also it will be able to connect with the retail promotions such as coupons exchange and loyalty programs, and a major working example is the Google Wallet through NFC technology (Kochhar), as a result, the future sales will not be based on celebrity endorsement or tactical sales, rather differentiation strategy in product features and services will be the key factor. The future is bright for www and e-commerce to evolve and grow, it can be said that the prediction is almost self explanatory in view of the fact that the technology has overtaken everyday life and the future will be more connected than ever, thus the compatibility of www and e-commerce will lead only to one thing i.e. connecting with the consumers in a more profitable manner, that will automatically create a winning situation for companies and consumers alike.
Works Cited
Anderson, Janna & Rainie, Lee. Digital Life in 2015. Pew Research Center. 2014 Web 22 March, 2016.
E-commerce-land. History of Ecommerce. 2016. Web 22 March, 2016.
Fridman, Adam. 3 Trends Redefining the Future of E-Commerce. INC 2015. Web 22 March, 2016.
Kochhar, Monika. What 5 experts Say About the Future of E-Commerce. Aabaco 2016. Web 25 March, 2016.
Puri, Ritika. The Future of Ecommerce: 7 Trends That Are Changing How We Shop. Shopify 2015. Web 22 March, 2016.
Shirvell, Bridget. 15 predictions for the future of the Internet. PBS News. 2014 Web 22 March, 2016.
World Wide Web Foundation. History of the Web. 2016. Web 22 March, 2016.
