Electronic shopping

Abstract

he global electronic market will have a profound impact on commerce in the 21st Century.While current U.S. sales in cyberspace ($1 billion in 1995) are small in comparison to total U.S. retail sales ($1.7 trillion in 1995) [3], U.S. cybersales projections for the year 2000 range from $7 to $117 billion [9].More importantly, most experts predict a radical shift in how business will be conducted in the next century.This shift not only has businesses scrambling to meet this new marketing reality, but also raises many important research questions about business strategy, technical infrastructure, government policies, the electronic market demographics as well as how people will use the technology.Issues of technology usage become critical as businesses and retailers attempt to exploit the boom in electronic marketing.There are large differences between a physical store and its electronic counterpart.A help button on the home page of the Web shopping site replaces the sales clerk's friendly advice and service.The familiar layout of the physical store becomes a maze of pull-down menus, product indices, and search features.Now more than ever, the promise of electronic commerce and online shopping will depend to a great extent upon the interface and how people interact with the computer.Account managers, production staff, and merchant partners should not assume customers do not