Ⅰ 電子商務的英文寫法
電子商務源於英文ELECTRONIC COMMERCE，簡寫為EC。顧名思義，其內容包含兩個方面，一是電子方式，二是商貿活動。
電子商務指的是利用簡單、快捷、低成本的電子通訊方式，買賣雙方不謀面地進行各種商貿活動。 電子商務可以通過多種電子通訊方式來完成。比如你通過打電話或發傳真的方式來與客戶進行商貿活動。現在人們所探討的電子商務主要是以EDI（電子數據交換）和INTERNET來完成的。尤其是隨著INTERNET技術的日益成熟，電子商務真正的發展將是建立在INTERNET技術上的。所以也開始有人把電子商務簡稱為IC（INTERNET COMMERCE）。
從貿易活動的角度分析，電子商務可以在多個環節實現，由此也可以將電子商務分為兩個層次，較低層次的電子商務如電子商情、電子貿易、電子合同等；最完整的也是最高級的電子商務應該是利用INTENET網路能夠進行全部的貿易活動，即在網上將信息流、商流、資金流和部分的物流完整地實現，也就是說，你可以從尋找客戶開始，一直到洽談、訂貨、在線付（收）款、開據電子發票以至到電子報關、電子納稅等通過INTERNET一氣呵成。
要實現完整的電子商務還會涉及到很多方面，除了買家、賣家外，還要有銀行或金融機構、政府機構、認證機構、配送中心等機構的加入才行。由於參與電子商務中的各方在物理上是互不謀面的，因此整個電子商務過程並不是物理世界商務活動的翻版，網上銀行、在線電子支付等條件和數據加密、電子簽名等技術在電子商務中發揮著重要的不可或缺的作用
Ⅱ 求人大出版社電子商務英文版肯尼思第七版中文翻譯全本
可到新華書店去看看，可以網購，如果急需要，可以聯系出版社郵寄，就是要加郵費
Ⅲ 跪求電子商務英文原文及中文翻譯，急在線等！
本書第一版在2003年出版以來，受到師生的極度好評，被很多學校的電子商務及其他管理類專業選做教材。為了更好地滿足師生的需要，緊跟電子商務實踐的發展，作者對本書進行了修訂。在第2版中，每篇文章仍然按照英文原文、中文譯文、單詞和片語、注釋、練習題這樣的結構來安排，非常適合學生學習使用。對原版中的一些文章進行了替換，並加入了新的閱讀材料，以體現電子商務領域涌現出的新的熱點話題。所選取的文章基本涵蓋了電子商務的主要領域，這些文章難度適中，語言流暢，既具有很強的專業性又具有很好的可讀性，在幫助學生鞏固所學電子商務專業知識的同時，提高其英語水平。
The first edition of this book has been published in 2003, the highly praised by teachers and students, many schools and other e-commerce and management professionals to do the election materials. In order to better meet the needs of teachers and students, closely follow the development of e-commerce practice, the author of the book has been revised. In the second edition, each article is still in accordance with the original English text, the Chinese translation of words and phrases, notes that such a practice to structure arrangements, it is ideal for students learning to use. Some of the original article in a replacement and to add a new reading materials to reflect the area of electronic commerce emerged in the new hot topic. Selected articles covering the main areas of e-commerce, these articles moderate difficulty, language fluency, and both are highly professional and well readability with the help students consolidate the expertise of e-commerce at the same time, raise Their English proficiency.
Ⅳ 電子商務的英文翻譯
電子商抄務的英文翻譯有：Electronic Commerce; Electronic Business; E-commerce幾種。
電子商襲務是以信息網路技術為手段，以商品交換為中心的商務活動；也可理解為在互聯網（Internet）、企業內部網（Intranet）和增值網（VAN，Value Added Network）上以電子交易方式進行交易活動和相關服務的活動，是傳統商業活動各環節的電子化、網路化、信息化。
Ⅳ 幫忙推薦下電子商務類的優秀書籍，也可以是英文版本
《金融市場中的電子商務與革新（英文版.第1版）》
作 者: Fan/Srinivasan/Stallaert/Whinston
出 版 社: 北京大學出版社
ISBN : 730105961
原 價: ￥38
目 錄 第一章 電子商務和金融市場組織 第二章 在線革命 第三章 走向數字化市場 第四章 堅果仁中的金融市場 第五章 紐約股票交易所 第六章 納斯達克市場 第七章 電子通訊網路 第八章 計算機自動交易系統 第九章 海外金融市場 第十章 固定收入證券市場 第十一章 非傳統金融市場 第十二章 電子市場新興技術 第十三章 創造性毀壞 教輔產品 Electronic Main Text／0—03—034686—X
電子商務-經典原版書庫(英文版.第7版)
作 者： (美)Gary P.Schneider
出 版 社： 機械工業出版社
出版日期： 2006年8月 版次： 1
I S B N： 711119768 頁數：
開 本： 16開 印張： 100.00
包 裝： 平裝 字數：
Ⅵ 求一篇關於電子商務的英文文獻及翻譯，急~！！！！
An additional question is how a marketer could design websites that truly personalize proct recommendations and how consumers react to these versus more neutral, 「third party」 web sites such as www.kbb.com for automobiles.
we address the issue of the structure of one new tool (i.e., e-mail) that can help marketers be more efficient in testing direct marketing efforts.
direct marketing
Furthermore, work by Haubl and Trifts (2000) showed that a comparison matrix similar to the comparator proced higher quality consideration sets and decisions.
the possibility remains that providing information could postpone or even prevent purchase.
Agents are not new; a crude (by today』s standards) agent, Firefly, was developed in the mid-1990s for movie and music recommendations.
the amount of information available on the Web has increased dramatically as has the technological sophistication of the agents which makes continued research in this area important.
In particular, Haubl and Trifts (2000) show that recommender agents based on self-explicatedinformation about a consumer』s utility function (i.e., attribute weights and minimum acceptable attribute levels) rece search effort and improve decisions.
Agents should be adaptive, autonomous, and believable, be able to respond in a timely fashion, and be goal-oriented.
It has also been established that agents, like those studied by H¨aubl and his colleagues, that learn about consumers from choices and consumer preferences perform better in the long run than (say) collaborative filters (Ariely et al., 2004). This suggests that methods that calibrate consumer preferences in real time on-line are crucial to advancement.
polyhedral conjoint analysis (Toubia et al., 2003) satisfies these criteria. Liechty and his colleagues developed a Hierarchical Bayes procere that does so as well.
Montgomery et al. (2004) address the problem of designing a better shopbot.
They show that shopbots are inferior to visiting a favorite retailer if the shopbot visits all retailers.
Indeed, armed with some inferences from previous visits, a small set of initial screener questions can lead to an optimally personalized web interface for the consumer.
Based on a stochastic ration model and Bayesian updating , the authors adapt the testing parameters (e.g., number of e-mails sent for each e-mail design and sending rate) while the testing is in progress so as to minimize the cost of testing both in terms of wasted e-mails and time.
Only if the interactivity pays off.
In bargaining or auction situations, possible lack of trust and the inability to interpret the signalsof the other participant(s).
翻譯
另外一個問題是，一個營銷人員如果設計網頁，嫩構真實的又有個性的推薦我們的產品，並且可以讓顧客對產品的反應不是保持中立，「第三世界」的網頁，就像www.kbb.com
我們對於新工具像email這種方式的看法是，它可以幫助營銷人員更有效率的直接測試營銷效果。
直接營銷
更多的是，通過Haubl和Trifts(2000)的工作可知，類似的矩陣和計算機化相比較，生產出更高質量的產品和高質量的決策
可能性保持在提高那些可能推遲或者現在就購買的信息信息。
代理商，一個新的職業，簡單的代理（現在的標准）。螢火蟲(?),在20世紀90年代中期在電影和音樂推薦上有很大的發展。
由於代理商的科技的混合應用，使網頁上可提供的信息量，有著驚人的增長，這使這個行業繼續調長下去變得更為重要。
特別使，Haubl和Trifts(2000)的工作可知，推薦者代理基於對顧客自我闡述商品的信息(比如，重量和最小可接受的級別)，減少調查的精力，提高決定能力。
代理商要有很好的適應能力，自主並且有自信，能夠在第一時間回應狀況，並且有目標。
同時，通過Haubl和其他同事的研究，代理商的形成，與合作過濾相比較，在長期運行中更好的學習了關於顧客的決定和執行偏好。這就給我們在關於顧客網上購物時的偏好提供了標准化。
只翻譯了一半，翻不下去了，你參考一下吧，有的句子可能比較奇怪就是了
Ⅶ 電子商務的英文是什麼
電子商務，英文是Electronic Commerce，簡稱EC。電子商務通常是指是在全球各地廣泛的商業貿易活動中，在網際網路開放的網路環境下，基於瀏覽器/伺服器應用方式，買賣雙方不謀面地進行各種商貿活動，實現消費者的網上購物、商戶之間的網上交易和在線電子支付以及各種商務活動、交易活動、金融活動和相關的綜合服務活動的一種新型的商業運營模式。「中國網路營銷網」 Tinlu相關文章指出，電子商務涵蓋的范圍很廣，一般可分為企業對企業(Business-to-Business)，或企業對消費者(Business-to-Customer)兩種。另外還有消費者對消費者（Customer-to-Customer)這種大步增長的模式。隨著國內Internet使用人數的增加，利用Internet進行網路購物並以銀行卡付款的消費方式已漸流行，市場份額也在迅速增長，電子商務網站也層出不窮。電子商務最常見之安全機制有SSL及SET兩種。
SSL(安全套接層協議）SET(安全電子交易協議）電子商務的定義：
首先將電子商務劃分為廣義和狹義的電子商務。廣義的電子商務定義為，使用各種電子工具從事商務或活動。這些工具包括從初級的電報、電話、廣播、電視、傳真到計算機、計算機網路，到NII（國家信息基礎結構－信息高速公路）、GII（全球信息基礎結構）和Internet等現代系統。而商務活動是從泛商品（實物與非實物，商品與非商品化的生產要素等等）的需求活動到泛商品的合理、合法的消費除去典型的生產過程後的所有活動。狹義電子商務定義為，主要利用Internet從事商務或活動。電子商務是在技術、經濟高度發達的現代社會里，掌握信息技術和商務規則的人，系統化地運用電子工具，高效率、低成本地從事以商品交換為中心的各種活動的總稱。這個分析突出了電子商務的前提、中心、重點、目的和標准，指出它應達到的水平和效果，它是對電子商務更嚴格和體現時代要求的定義，它從系統的觀點出發，強調人在系統中的中心地位，將環境與人、人與工具、人與勞動對象有機地聯系起來，用系統的目標、系統的組成來定義電子商務，從而使它具有生產力的性質。
Ⅷ 求電子商務:商務、技術、社會(第7版) 肯尼思 中文版PDF的，謝謝^ω^
電子商務管理與社交網路視角(原書第7版).pdf
http://vdisk.weibo.com/s/cLASpI8abTRfd
TxT電子書免費專下載的方法屬
http://jingyan..com/article/9f7e7ec08312b26f29155463.html
Ⅸ 電子商務中英文翻譯
日趨完善的電子商務
一．電子商務方興未艾
當2000年科技泡沫爆發時，備受炒作的網上公司好象隨之蒸發了，眾多的網上貿易也被迫流產。劫後餘生網上公司無一不緊縮商務，好在與日俱增的互聯網用戶在激勵著他們。現在，對網上公司的評價又有所提高了，並且很多.com公司的確也已開始贏利了，但工商界還是謹慎地評價互聯網的潛能。盡管如此，有人已大膽的預言：世界上大量經濟巨頭不久都會以某種方式移師電腦空間。
據商務部不完全統計表明，去年網上零售額增加了26%，達到550億美元。這聽起來的確是一個很大的數目，但這僅相當於全球零售業總額的1.6%。大部分的成年消費者依然習慣於到「磚+混凝土」（bricks-and-mortar）的世界裡消費。
其實商務部公布的數字僅涉及部分產業。例如，該數字雖然包括了網上旅遊服務，這一電子商務界最成功也是增長最快的行業之一。IAC (InterActiveCorp)，expedia.com 和 hotels.com兩個站的擁有者，去年僅它一家就有100億美元的營業額，包括航空業、賓館業、計程車公司在內的競爭對手去年網上營業總額也有大幅攀升，但這些網上營業額攀升的企業在商務部的數字中並未得到體現。
同樣，商務部的數字也沒有包含財經服務、票務代理、網上色情（據<成人視訊（A lt Video News）>（去年美國網上色情業營業額高達20億美元）等行業在內。另外大量與博彩業相關的商業形為(世界范圍內的網上博彩業營業額高達60億美元)也沒有提及。
二、冰山之一角
另外，商務部的數字雖然包括了拍賣網站的利潤，卻沒有包含所拍賣成交貨物的價值在內，據估算，其價值高達數百億美元。去年僅eBay這家最大的拍賣網站出手的貨物價值就高達240億美元。按照商務部的界定，數十億美元的成交貨物總價值是沒有包括其中的，況且很多B2B模式的商貿形為都是不公開的，例如Wal-Mart公司就明確地告誡其供貨商，若想成為其2500億美元的營業額的一部分，必需採用自己的運轉體系。
由以上數字可以看出，電子商務已是很有規模了，並且正在發展壯大。但是網上交易額正受到離線交易的沖擊，而離線交易又是電子商務的一個重要組成部分。
互聯網正深深地改變著消費者的消費行為。目前，有1/5的美國人在到商店購買電子產品前，會先到網上去查詢其最低價，以節省哪怕一毛錢。更讓人吃驚的是，有3/4的美國人在購買新汽車時也會首先想到互聯網，即使最後成交仍可能是用傳統的方式---從經銷商那購買，但他們會到網上去了解有關要購汽車的各種信息，並選定網上推薦的最好的經銷商。有時，他們還會到相關網站上去列印自己感興趣的汽車的圖片等資料作參考。
作為資深調查顧問的Forrester先生提供的圖表顯示，在歐洲6億消費者中，有半數採取在網上查詢商品信息，然後離線購買的方式來消費（見圖1）。當然不同國家又有不同的消費習慣，例如在義大利和西班牙，採取在網上查詢然後離線購買的人數大約是網上直接購買的兩倍。但在德國和英國這兩個最發達的網路國家裡，二者基本相當。Forrester稱，人們從網上購物一般都是從一些簡單的物品開始的，如DVD光碟，然後向較復雜的商品過渡。在美國，二手汽車是一個增長最快的一個領域。
如果網站的顧客導購做的成功的話，人們看來是樂意採取網上購物方式的，現在網站正在變的越來越明智，它們給顧客更多更實在的服務。在不久的將來，網上購物占人們購物總額的比例肯定會有大的提高。
三、網站的作用
網站建設對商業行為來說意義重大。一個不注重網站建設的公司無異於是在商戰中自殺。即便公司並不從事網上交易，網站也會成為人們了解其商標、產品及服務的門戶。在電腦空間，一個無價值的網站往往預示著一個無價值的公司，他只會在人們的滑鼠點擊下被無情舍棄。所以一個成功的公司一定要建成一個優秀的網站，以確保它能出現在每次搜索結果的前列。
對很多用戶而言，一個搜索站點往往是他們進入互聯網的切入點。全球知名的搜索引擎早已進入當代詞典：人們會說他「Googled」了一個公司，一個產品或是一個管道工。這種搜索行為也成為了互聯網上最有成效的廣告途徑之一。並且這也是接近青少年這一顧客群體最好的方式，因為他們花在互聯網上的時間遠遠超過看電視的時間。所有這些都說明，網上搜索成了互聯網的一下個戰場，例如，Google就是依賴其優異的搜索功能來抗衡Yahoo! 和 Microsoft。
另一條忠告就是公司最好在一家已擁有相當訪問量的網站上登載自己的商品及服務。Ebay、Yahoo、Amazon正在某些方面成為眾多公司的展示自己商品的巨大平台，不過一個公司要參與到這個平台中來，則必需經得住激烈的價格戰。網上消費者往往會拿商品網上報價與當地商店裡作一比較，甚至會與別的國家的售價進行比較，即使網上銷售在境外是被禁止的，也會有大量的基於網站銷售方式的業主積極去運作。
芝加哥Kellogg管理學院的科技教授 Mohanbir Sawhney說，我們應清楚現今消費者購物行為的改變。例如，某人想買一部數字照相機，他會先到附近的商店裡去考察實物，選好型號後，他會和售貨員說：「我回去考慮一下再來」，然後他回家就會到網上去查該型號相機的最低售價，然後在網上訂購。所以從這個意義上說，消費者已不再遵從傳統的購物流程。
四、電子商務時代的消費者
不只是互聯網上透明的價格使得消費者成為強勢群體，網路也使得他們成為「薄情」一族，如果他們不喜歡某一網站則會毫不猶豫地離開。「網路是世界上最自私的場所」，Yahoo!執行總裁Daniel Rosensweig 稱，「人們應用互聯網可謂，隨時、隨地、隨人所欲」。
象Yahoo!這樣，致力於尋找並提供客戶需要的各種信息的網站並不在少數（Yahoo!每月據稱有2。6億訪問者）。消費者最關心的就是最詳實的商品名錄及其報價，Amazon執行總裁Jeff Bezos說：「我們經營的基礎是消費者的信任」。Amazon現在已是世界聞名的圖書經銷商，以前它也曾在網上銷售過其它產品，例如保健品、珠寶和精選的食品。Bezos先生認為除倉儲超市裡那些體積大價格低的物品外，他們甚至可以出售一切，這也是數以百萬計的消費者選擇eBay的原因。
即便如此，沒有人會認為傳統意義的商店可以消失，特別是那些「投機」性更強的領域。許多「磚+混凝土」的商店仍有著不凡的業績，例如雜貨市場等，但象音像和旅遊市場則受到了來自互聯網實實在在的沖擊。作為互聯網上最大的旅遊代理商的Expedia旅遊公司，其老闆聲稱未來美國民眾網上預訂旅遊服務的比例，將會從如今的20%上升到50%。Bezos先生估計未來十年網上零售業將會達到零售總額的10-15%，並將深刻地改變人們的消費觀念。
面對來勢洶洶的網上營銷，傳統的商場將如何應對呢？Dell計算機公司的創始人Michael Dell先生，一直領導個人計算機的直銷市場，他認為憑借各層銷售商店去出售計算機的方式只能進陳列館作為古董了，Dell採用的直銷方式已收到了良好的效果。近來，Apple 和Sony的專賣店計劃展示全部可以在網上查到的該品牌商品，也是應對措施之一。從長遠看，網上和離線銷售方式也必將融合，傳統商店也將成為多種銷售手段並存的集合體：列印出的商品名錄、家庭電視直銷、電視訂貨以及電子商務網站具全。但從消費者角度來說，從網上訂貨還是他們最為樂意的消費方式。
網上銷售最大的優勢就在於其低價，這是因為網上商品沒有多層中轉，於是也就沒有多層加價，它們一般都是直接從生產廠家直接到消費者。如果在互聯網上消費者可以買到最低價格的商品並能得到最好的服務，還會有人去其它地方購物嗎？
當然，消費才在網上購物時，可能會面對欺詐行為。但隨著互聯網的發展，它傳遞商品信息速度進一步加快，加上提供同一商品的多家網站必然會考慮自己的長遠發展，而爭相提供准確翔實的商品信息和價格，並提供優質服務，以抓住更多的用戶。所以網上市場肯定會越來越完善。
A perfect market
May 13th 2004
From The Economist print edition
E-commerce is coming of age, says Paul Markillie, but not in the way predicted in the bubble years
WHEN the technology bubble burst in 2000, the crazy valuations for online companies vanished with it, and many businesses folded. The survivors plugged on as best they could, encouraged by the growing number of internet users. Now valuations are rising again and some of the dotcoms are making real profits, but the business world has become much more cautious about the internet』s potential. The funny thing is that the wild predictions made at the height of the boom—namely, that vast chunks of the world economy would move into cyberspace—are, in one way or another, coming true.
The raw numbers tell only part of the story. According to America』s Department of Commerce, online retail sales in the world』s biggest market last year rose by 26%, to $55 billion. That sounds a lot of money, but it amounts to only 1.6% of total retail sales. The vast majority of people still buy most things in the good old 「bricks-and-mortar」 world.
But the commerce department』s figures deal with only part of the retail instry. For instance, they exclude online travel services, one of the most successful and fastest-growing sectors of e-commerce. InterActiveCorp (IAC), the owner of expedia.com and hotels.com, alone sold $10 billion-worth of travel last year—and it has plenty of competition, not least from airlines, hotels and car-rental companies, all of which increasingly sell online.
Nor do the figures take in things like financial services, ticket-sales agencies, pornography (a $2 billion business in America last year, according to Alt Video News, a trade magazine), online dating and a host of other activities, from tracing ancestors to gambling (worth perhaps $6 billion worldwide). They also leave out purchases in grey markets, such as the online pharmacies that are thought to be responsible for a good proportion of the $700m that Americans spent last year on buying cut-price prescription drugs from across the border in Canada.
Tip of the iceberg
And there is more. The commerce department』s figures include the fees earned by internet auction sites, but not the value of goods that are sold: an astonishing $24 billion-worth of trade was done last year on eBay, the biggest online auctioneer. Nor, by definition, do they include the billions of dollars-worth of goods bought and sold by businesses connecting to each other over the internet. Some of these B2B services are proprietary; for example, Wal-Mart tells its suppliers that they must use its own system if they want to be part of its annual turnover of $250 billion.
So e-commerce is already very big, and it is going to get much bigger. But the actual value of transactions currently concluded online is dwarfed by the extraordinary influence the internet is exerting over purchases carried out in the offline world. That influence is becoming an integral part of e-commerce.
To start with, the internet is profoundly changing consumer behaviour. One in five customers walking into a Sears department store in America to buy an electrical appliance will have researched their purchase online—and most will know down to a dime what they intend to pay. More surprisingly, three out of four Americans start shopping for new cars online, even though most end up buying them from traditional dealers. The difference is that these customers come to the showroom armed with information about the car and the best available deals. Sometimes they even have computer print-outs identifying the particular vehicle from the dealer』s stock that they want to buy.
Half of the 60m consumers in Europe who have an internet connection bought procts offline after having investigated prices and details online, according to a study by Forrester, a research consultancy (see chart 1). Different countries have different habits. In Italy and Spain, for instance, people are twice as likely to buy offline as online after researching on the internet. But in Britain and Germany, the two most developed internet markets, the numbers are evenly split. Forrester says that people begin to shop online for simple, predictable procts, such as DVDs, and then graate to more complex items. Used-car sales are now one of the biggest online growth areas in America.
People seem to enjoy shopping on the internet, if high customer-satisfaction scores are any guide. Websites are doing ever more and cleverer things to serve and entertain their customers, and seem set to take a much bigger share of people』s overall spending in the future.
Why websites matter
This has enormous implications for business. A company that neglects its website may be committing commercial suicide. A website is increasingly becoming the gateway to a company』s brand, procts and services—even if the firm does not sell online. A useless website suggests a useless company, and a rival is only a mouse-click away. But even the coolest website will be lost in cyberspace if people cannot find it, so companies have to ensure that they appear high up in internet search results.
For many users, a search site is now their point of entry to the internet. The best-known search engine has already entered the lexicon: people say they have 「Googled」 a company, a proct or their plumber. The search business has also developed one of the most effective forms of advertising on the internet. And it is already the best way to reach some consumers: teenagers and young men spend more time online than watching television. All this means that search is turning into the internet』s next big battleground as Google defends itself against challenges from Yahoo! and Microsoft.
The other way to get noticed online is to offer goods and services through one of the big sites that already get a lot of traffic. Ebay, Yahoo! and Amazon are becoming huge trading platforms for other companies. But to take part, a company』s procts have to stand up to intense price competition. People check online prices, compare them with those in their local high street and may well take a peek at what customers in other countries are paying. Even if websites are prevented from shipping their goods abroad, there are plenty of web-based entrepreneurs ready to oblige.
What is going on here is arbitrage between different sales channels, says Mohanbir Sawhney, professor of technology at the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago. For instance, someone might use the internet to research digital cameras, but visit a photographic shop for a hands-on demonstration. 「I』ll think about it,」 they will tell the sales assistant. Back home, they will use a search engine to find the lowest price and buy online. In this way, consumers are 「deconstructing the purchasing process」, says Professor Sawhney. They are unbundling proct information from the transaction itself.
All about me
It is not only price transparency that makes internet consumers so powerful; it is also the way the net makes it easy for them to be fickle. If they do not like a website, they swiftly move on. 「The web is the most selfish environment in the world,」 says Daniel Rosensweig, chief operating officer of Yahoo! 「People want to use the internet whenever they want, how they want and for whatever they want.」
Yahoo! is not alone in defining its strategy as working out what its customers (260m unique users every month) are looking for, and then trying to give it to them. The first thing they want is to become better informed about procts and prices. 「We operate our business on that belief,」 says Jeff Bezos, Amazon』s chief executive. Amazon became famous for books, but long ago branched out into selling lots of other things too; among its latest ventures are health procts, jewellery and gourmet food. Apart from cheap and bulky items such as garden rakes, Mr Bezos thinks he can sell most things. And so do the millions of people who use eBay.
And yet nobody thinks real shops are finished, especially those operating in niche markets. Many bricks-and-mortar bookshops still make a good living, as do flea markets. But many record shops and travel agents could be in for a tougher time. Erik Blachford, the head of IAC』s travel side and boss of Expedia, the biggest internet travel agent, thinks online travel bookings in America could quickly move from 20% of the market to more than half. Mr Bezos reckons online retailers might capture 10-15% of retail sales over the next decade. That would represent a massive shift in spending.
How will traditional shops respond? Michael Dell, the founder of Dell, which leads the personal-computer market by selling direct to the customer, has long thought many shops will turn into showrooms. There are already signs of change on the high street. The latest Apple and Sony stores are designed to display procts, in the full expectation that many people will buy online. To some extent, the online and offline worlds may merge. Multi-channel selling could involve a combination of traditional shops, a printed catalogue, a home-shopping channel on TV, a phone-in order service and an e-commerce-enabled website. But often it is likely to be the website where customers will be encouraged to place their orders.
One of the biggest commercial advantages of the internet is a lowering of transaction costs, which usually translates directly into lower prices for the consumer. So, if the lowest prices can be found on the internet and people like the service they get, why would they buy anywhere else?
One reason may be convenience; another, concern about fraud, which poses the biggest threat to online trade. But as long as the internet continues to deliver price and proct information quickly, cheaply and securely, e-commerce will continue to grow. Increasingly, companies will have to assume that customers will know exactly where to look for the best buy. This market has the potential to become as perfect as it gets.