E-boom, Take Two

The E-commerce Book Building the E-Empire By Steffano Korper and Juanita Ellis Academic Press * US$31.96

THIS BOOK OFFERS A RAY OF HOPE AMID the darkness of the Internet storm, a cataclysm wherein one company after another fails while investors take their venture capital elsewhere, tired of waiting for profits that will never materialize.

The E-Commerce Book is the second edition of a work published two years ago. In the original, authors Juanita Ellis and Steffano Korper--e-commerce specialists and creators of an e-commerce course--revealed ways to succeed online at the height of the Web gold rush.

Now, as the authors point out, several years of spectacular highs and lows in ecommerce have given them more information and more anecdotes to back up their hypothesis. And, despite the dotcom disasters, Ellis and Korper stick by their original conclusions: the electronic economy is here to stay and business leaders who follow a specific prescription for success will become part of it.

The tome offers recipes for understanding, organizing, assembling and putting into practice the business and technological elements necessary to succeed at electronic commerce. The authors explain important factors clearly and succinctly: marketing and publicizing Web sites, globalizing Internet businesses, market behavior and sales and distribution solutions. They also explain the technologies needed to do business on the Web, such as credit card verification systems, online transaction security, protection against viruses and Web site design.

For beginners, these themes are explained in simple, uncomplicated language, useful for the reader inclined toward business more than technology. But there is little of interest for the technologically adept.

A look to the future comes in the last chapter, titled Get Ready for Wireless! The authors praise wireless communications and are quick to point out that wireless technology--its devices and uses--will have a greater effect on daily life than even personal computers or the World Wide Web.Mobile commerce, still in its nascent stages, will eventually be the dominant form of e-commerce. According to The Yankee Group, by the year 2003 (just around the corner), more people will use wireless equipment than PCs to connect to the Web.

Future shop. The preponderance of mobile devices compared to computers, according to the authors, will be more noticeable in Europe and Asia. Already in Europe, using an electronic payment method for simple bills, such as telephone or utilities bills or a restaurant tab, is much more common than in the United States. And in Asia, most of the population doesn't have access to ground telephone lines, so mobile equipment is virtually everywhere. Latin America should follow Asia's model.

Of particular interest is this vision of the future. You are strolling through a commercial district, wireless device in hand, when the device (phone, handheld, or whatever) sends you a message that a nearby store has a certain item on sale. It's an item that you've been looking for. The satellite's global positioning system has determined that you're near the store and you already programmed the device to "know" that you're looking for this widget. While you are walking to the store, the device window shops on the Internet and concludes that this store is offering the best deal. You enter the store, buy the item and leave. Your wireless device was used to pay for the item electronically, deducting the price from your bank account.

The scene may sound like it's been plucked from a science fiction novel, but Ellis and Korper predict it will take place in the very near future. Are the authors suffering from an exaggerated optimism, from the same overconfidence that precipitated the rise and fall of the dotcoms? Perhaps. But while their book may suffer from the sin of enthusiasm, it also offers a useful and informative body of reference, a compass and a map for those willing to confront the storm.

Excerpt from E-commerce Book

"The Internet promises to change your whole manufacturing process, allowing you to communicate instantly with suppliers, partners and customers on a worldwide scale, yet it requires that old standards of customer service, such as toll-free numbers for instant airing of complaints or questions, be maintained."

COPYRIGHT 2001 Freedom Magazines, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group