Online Commerce

Accelerator > Network Applications

Online selling of goods and services through web- or mobile-based platforms, allowing for greater choices, increased accessibility, frictionless experiences and lower prices

Definition

  • Sale of goods and services, fully or partially, including price negotiation and order placement, through digital platforms, including websites, marketplaces, mobile apps, and e-mail (also known as E-Commerce)

Outlook

  • Intensified competition as market players increase, capitalizing on evolving consumer needs and behavior
  • Increased share of consumers preferring to buy goods online over traditional physical channels
  • Improved accessibility of products and services, most becoming on-demand with aid from rapidly advancing delivery systems
  • Heightened focus on advanced security protocols as critical information are stored in cloud

Implications

  • Enabling companies to reduce expenses and expenditures usually incurred by operating traditional commerce platforms
  • Increasing capability of companies to penetrate other markets worldwide
  • Evolving traditional storefronts, turning into showrooms rather than places to complete transactions
  • Improving customer experience, becoming frictionless, on-demand and increasingly self-service
  • Heightening need for international rules and standards to oversee global online commerce
  • Growing cybersecurity threats as more transactions are conducted online, increasing privacy risks and opening up more vulnerabilities

To what extent do you leverage websites, mobile applications and other e-commerce platforms to sell and support your products and services locally and in other markets?