UK goverment published a report titled "Beyond e-commerce to everywhere-commerce" describing technology impact on British e-commerce and plans for expanding the markets.

- Consumer spend fuelled by technology

"Trade is borderless. Wifi is everywhere. There is no time delay on money. Smart mobile device ownership is on the rise worldwide. The combination of technology and the services it enables is stimulating consumer activity as society spends more and more time online. Mobile devices have driven this change with sales of smartphones and tablets surpassing laptops and desktops in 2013. Activity on social media platforms reflects this transition to an “always-on” culture and for many brands mobile is the strategic growth channel amongst the range of channels they operate. There were a total of 6.3 billion global mobile subscriptions in 2012. For 2013 there were 6.8 billion. These days it is possible to reach customers in parts of the world a UK brand would not have had reach – total accessibility, global reach – the digital platform allows us to know our customers like never before."

- Consumer behaviour changed by technology

"If the effect of mobile has been rapid it is likely the next generation of wearable technology will be even more dramatic. Not only will it create another channel for retailers but it will rebalance the way consumers shop for brands. Google Glass and Samsung’s watch show how unobtrusive connected devices can become by going from separate objects to being integrated into everyday products. Mobile devices have already changed the way consumers shop, wearable technology will reinforce the ability of consumers to buy anywhere and do so when and how it suits them. When the consumer is “always on” and the market consists of multiple touch points for display and others for sell-though, the market is literally everywhere. The value of the wearable device market in 2013 was $2.5bn. It is expected to rise to $12.6bn by 2018."

- Consumer relationships with brands changed by technology

 "The days of just optimising full version sites are over and retailers are now going to have to find new levels of skill to optimise mobile as part of the customer journey. Tracking journeys across multiple devices and giving customers relevant content will be a new exciting challenge for brands. In future the relationship between consumer and retailer will change; the new entrant is the device maker. The device maker will own the primary relationship with the consumer because the retailer’s brand will be accessed through their screen. These changes go to the heart of how a company will present its brand in the future as the role of data grows in importance and retailers search for new ways to compete against the competition and to connect directly with their consumers."

- UKTI’s Global Digital Acceleration Plan

"The route to growth is through the screen. There are over 150 digital malls worldwide and they are a new breed of channel that delivers sales and marketing in one. This is made possible by the huge numbers of consumers who visit these platforms every day and the behavioural data that this traffic generates. UKTI is providing focused support to the retail sector in three areas:

• new and emerging e-commerce channels
• exploitation of the scale of digital marketing to maximise global presence
• optimisation of ongoing marketing activity to meet international consumer interest"

"Recommended partners for advice and services to companies for each step of the export process from trademark and URL registration, landed cost calculation, packaging, shipping, payment, VAT registration, marketing and related services."

- UKTI Retail Industry International Action Plan

"The UKTI Retail Industry International Action Plan aims to:

• deliver £500m value to the UK economy through assisting up to 1,000 businesses with their international growth in the two years to March 2015
• provide support for up to 600 retail sector SMEs to help with their international growth
• work with Business Ambassadors, the Catalyst programme and the International Trade Advisor Network to prepare the UK retail sector for international trade
• tailor UKTI support programmes and increase the uptake of these services to UK retailers seeking to internationalise their businesses
• increase the professionalism of the UKTI global network of support for the retail sector, including working with private sector providers to deliver information and advice."

According to this, online banking and mobile operating systems have been the fields most affected by malware in 2013.

"Online banking malware directly targeting victims’ finances has intensified globally in 2013, while prolific ransomware has increased and evolved throughout the year. (...) online banking malware was detected in countries that had not been previously targeted, increasing not only in number, but spread across the globe."

"Japan and the US have remained most affected by online banking malware throughout the year, with Brazil and Taiwan following. A spike in increased online banking activity in Brazil and Japan were cited as a possible explanation for the rise in malicious activity."

"There was a sizable increase in both volume and sophistication of mobile threats in 2013. As the most dominant operating system in the market, Android also holds the top spot for drawing the most malicious applications. Almost 1.4 million Android apps were found to be malicious by the end of 2013 – 1 million found in 2013 alone. Furthermore, while 90% of malicious and high-risk apps were hosted on dodgy domains, about 27% of the total was also found on legitimate app stores."

"2013 has registered an increase in phishing attacks specifically targeting Apple users as criminals recognise the potential revenue from its install base."

"Through social networking and “personal cloud” accounts, personal privacy became a recurring issue. Aggressive phishing attacks riding on the release of popular products such as PS4 and Xbox One emerged to compromise personal information. High-profile incidents of infrastructure being targeted by cyber-attacks became a reality in South Korea, demonstrating how critical operations can be impacted on a broad scale."

According to this, European consumers are concerned that the EU legislation draft currently under discussion would make paying with cards more expensive and more complicated.

"A recent poll in 13 European countries indicates that 2 in 3 consumers believe that proposals to cap interchange fees would make it worse for them to use their bank cards and 8 in 10 people do not expect retailers to pass on any cost savings through lower prices."

"Results also point out that 65% of consumers fear that inflexible caps on interchange fees would leave them worse off in terms of using cards. An even higher number (82%) believe that retailers would not pass on any cost savings from a reduction in their contribution to the costs of the electronic payments system."

"The survey also reveals that consumers are especially critical of a proposed rule that would give retailers the right to decide which specific cards they will or will not accept. Breaking up the so-called “Honour All Cards Rule” would deprive consumers of the number one quality they look for in payment cards – the certainty they can use it wherever they go around the world. Research shows that 8 in 10 consumers (77%) across Europe felt this measure would make using bank cards worse for them. Similarly, 60% are concerned that proposals to allow for multiple logos on the same card would have negative impact on consumers".

"MasterCard has consistently expressed its concern that the proposed caps would drive the cost of cards up for consumers. This concern is based on recent practical experience from countries like Spain, where legislation to cap interchange fees resulted in cardholder fees increasing by over 50% and no evidence of retailers passing on savings through lower prices. It also stems from the absence of any justification for fixing the same fees across over 30 countries where market conditions vary considerably."

According to this, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK could be missing out on GBP 77 billion in annual revenue by not having mobile-optimised websites.

"45% of UK SMEs do not have a website, yet believe their annual revenue could rise by 5.4% if they had a website that was optimised for mobile transactions, equating to an average of GBP 11,155 extra turnover annually. A further 45% of UK SMEs have a website that is not optimised for mobile. These businesses believe their annual revenues could rise by 3.5% if their website was optimised for mobile transactions, equating to an average of GBP 23,793 extra turnover annually."

"SMEs recognise the importance of mobile optimisation, and know its value is growing. Respondents predicted that mobile online transactions will have the greatest percentage annual growth across all sales channels in 2014, exceeding GBP 29 billion - a 1050% increase over 2013. In the UK, access to the Internet using a mobile phone more than doubled between 2010 and 2013, from 24% to 53%."

"Whilst SME decision-makers recognise that mobile is growing, few are taking immediate action. Only 10% of those surveyed currently have mobile-optimised websites, and of those that do not, only 13% plan to get one in the next 12-18 months."

• 1981 Thomson Holidays submits the first ever B2B electronic transaction using online technology
• 1987 Swreg creates the first merchant account to allow software developers to sell online
• 1991 The National Science Foundation lifts restrictions off the commercial use of the NET, clearing the way for ecommerce
• 1994 Pizza Hut has the first recorded internet sale
• 1995 The Dot-Com bubble serges with companies such as e-bay, Google, Craigslist, Amazon and Netscape
• 2000 The Dot-Com bust
• 2003 Social networks surface and Amazon has its first profitable year
• 2010 Ecommerce continues to evolve with mobile commerce, social commerce and group buying

[Via: Shopping Cart Reviews]