The Future of eCommerce!

just getting more into the ecommerce side of the net, and the industry has gone through some ups and downs in recent times, i was just wondering what people thought about where ecommerce is and is heading. Maybe including the effects of the econnomy, hackers, terrorist, security, consumer confidence etc.

Well I think as more and more people get online, many that you listed will become more important. Security will have to be stepped up on sites which will lead to better consumer confidence. With hackers (the bad ones), they will find more an more ways to get past security measures of sites. I am sure the economy has an effect, but with the latest trends, it looks like more an more people are spending money online.

Remember that online shopping will always have the incredibly high levels on conveinience, which I think will continue to encourage people.

In terms of security/hackers/consumer confidence. the bad hackers will step up their methods, and then the security people will do like wise and back and forth and back and forth forever. I don't think we will get to a point where security cannot keep up with the hackers, or vice versa. I think the balance will be unlitely to tilt either way.

The infinite battle between good and evil....

http://www.introversion.co.uk/

yes the neverending battle of security/hackers will continue i have no doubt.

good to see positive feedback regarding consumer confidence, i have been wondering about that.

so do you think the increasing number of scams on sites like ebay and other, and also spam turn internet purchasers away?

i dont buy anything off the net myself, maybe not because of security but maybe i just like to see it in the store???? probably will one day

Ive always thought that hacking will get so bad in the future, with more and more stuff becoming available on the web and sensitive stuff stored there, that hacking will become a crime punishable with the death penalty. It may seem a little far fetched, but with everything thats already available to those who know how to get it, I can see it getting even more serious. Thats just my idea though!

Don't worry -- M$ has an impenatrable software security coming out shortly

Really? To me, saying that its "impenatrable" just encourages hackers to try even harder to get in. Ive yet to believe that there is a firewall that doesnt have SOME holes in it.

Smokinjoe - don't be paranoid. When I start out a post with M$, it's usually a joke unless I'm being sarcastic in which case it's still a joke. Besides, if it wasn't for hackers we wouldn't have the internet as it exists now and the FBI wouldn't have half of it's employees. I don't forsee a death penalty in the near future.

lol, my bad. I wasnt tryin to be paranoid, just tossin out a different idea. Nobody really knows whats gonna happen in the future. I agree that the death penbalty is a little extreme, but you never know............

personally i think the world would be a better place if we all just went back to using commodore64's

@atno - i was actually wondering about that post lol. use of th might help some of us slower peeps lol.

Technology in war has always been a constant fight agains offence and defence.. Weapons get more effective, so armour gets more effective (or gets completely rethought (I just wrote that as "rethunk" ).
Its the same in this as in any other conflict.

NO firewall will ever be impenetrable, but then to attack will ever be 100% unstoppable.

I like to see the product in the store, but considering the majority of what I buy is electrical goods / cds / dvds etc, the need for viewing first hand is less important. However, I wouldn't buy my food online or anything like that!