Internet Commerce
This Explorer technology area has been discontinued.
Explorer offers limited, short-term web access to this discontinued technology. If you would like access to these documents, please contact us to discuss pricing and details.
Archived Viewpoints
2006
-
November:
-
October:
-
September:
-
August:
The Expanding Blogosphere
India Online
iTunes as an All-Purpose Platform -
July:
Capturing Cocreation Online
Assessing Cyworld's Online Reach -
June:
Middle Ground Hard to Find in U.S. Net-Neutrality Debate
Online Micro Media -
May:
e-Commerce on the Edge: Online Distribution and Disintermediation
-
April:
-
March:
Selective Search
Recent Developments: Google Launches Page Creator | OhMyNews -
February:
2005
-
December/January:
2005: The Year in Review
Look for These Developments in 2006 -
November:
-
October:
-
September:
Recent Developments: eBay Buys Skype | Google Invests in Broadband
-
August:
-
July:
-
June:
-
May:
-
April:
-
March:
Google Identities
Recent Developments: Google Replacing Your Computer's Operating System? -
February:
Recent Developments: "Folksonomies" and the Art of Tagging | Google as the Next Microsoft?
2004
-
December/January:
2004: The Year in Review
Look for These Developments in 2005 -
November:
-
October:
-
September:
Online Searching Becomes Personal
Recent Developments: Earthlink Tests Peer-to-Peer Networks -
August:
Trading Television Programs Online
Recent Developments: Further Progress in VoIP -
July:
-
June:
-
May:
Challenges to Conventional Assumptions about Online Consumers
-
April:
-
March:
-
February:
2003
-
December/January:
2003: The Year in Review
Look for These Developments in 2004 -
November:
-
October:
-
September:
-
August:
Internet Commerce and Unwanted E-Mails: Proposed Legal and Economic Solutions
-
July:
Internet Commerce and Unwanted E-Mails: Intensified Efforts to Filter and Block Spam
-
June:
-
May:
-
April:
-
March:
-
February:
Despite Recent Digital Copyright Developments, Fair-Use Issues Remain Unsettled
2002
-
December/January:
2002: The Year in Review
Look for These Developments in 2003 -
November:
Recent Developments: Google Finds Gains and Growing Pains | Will Consumers Take to Online Checks?
-
October:
Web-Based Payments: Credit Cards and E-Mail Payments in Retail Internet Commerce
-
September:
-
August:
-
July:
-
June:
-
May:
-
April:
-
March:
-
February:
2001
-
December/January:
2001: The Year in Review
Look for These Developments in 2002 -
November:
-
October:
-
September:
-
August:
-
July:
-
June:
-
May:
-
April:
-
March:
Business Models, Channels, and Consolidation in the B2B Space
-
February:
Regulating Online Privacy: Help or Hindrance to Internet Commerce?
2000
-
December/January:
2000: The Year in Review
Look for These Developments in 2001 -
November:
-
October:
-
September:
-
August:
-
July:
-
June:
-
May:
-
April:
-
March:
-
February:
1999
-
December/January:
1999: The Year in Review
Look for These Developments in 2000 -
November:
-
October:
-
September:
-
August:
-
Before August 1999, the Explorer service was called TechMonitoring, and Viewpoints were TechLinks.
-
July:
-
June:
-
May:
-
April:
-
March:
-
February:
1998
-
December/January:
About Internet Commerce
December 2005
Internet commerce comprises use of the Internet to buy and sell goods and services. The underlying technology is the Internet infrastructure. Software enables Internet-commerce applications; this Technology Map focuses on the software technologies. Internet commerce includes three basic steps: pretransaction (product promotion and product selection), transaction (product ordering and payment), and posttransaction (delivery and after-sales service) activities. Internet and non-Internet elements of the process interact extensively. Consumers may browse online but buy offline, as is currently the case with many U.S. car purchases. Alternatively, consumers may look offline (for clothes or books, for example) but buy online to obtain lower prices and avoid sales tax. In many cases, however, the entire process takes place over the Internet—for example, in the purchase of CDs, stocks, or airline tickets.
Retail Internet commerce continues to be the domain of very large online companies such as Amazon and eBay and to focus on the transaction of items such as books, CDs, consumer electronics, and apparel. But digital content is beginning to play an increasingly important role in retail e-commerce. Digital music downloads are leading the way, but digital publications, services, and even videos are also becoming more widespread. Online advertising for these items is also growing significantly.
In B2B commerce, the Internet has created a new sales channel that has disrupted the supply chain in many industries, with procurement and supply-chain management moving to the Internet. Significant Internet-commerce opportunities exist today in both B2C and B2B arenas for companies that offer a wide range of products and services. Several issues, not all technological, remain unresolved, but the benefits of cost reduction, better access to customers and suppliers, and improved efficiency are driving the solutions.