PROMISING FUTURE FOR INTERNATIONAL ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

According to a study conducted in January by the OC&C consultant and Google, the value of online exports in six of the major global e-commerce markets will be multiplied by five to $130 billion by 2020. Moreover, a through a PwC report about the expectations and habits of the online buyer also confirm that social networks contribute exponentially to the growth of this trend. In this paper, we show the data concerning the most important international electronic commerce to enable them to be referenced and help us better prepare for the near future, in addition to taking account which are the issues that can still be improved.

Noting a little the history, we see that one of the major events that prompted hard to trade online as a turning point was the implementation of SSL by Netscape in 1994, because it allowed to send and share personal data securely. From here on, the evolution was unstoppable by the reduction of service times. Amazon and eBay began its journey in 1995, marking a before and after in the form of purchase; and later, in 1998 came a new e-commerce giant: Zappos. Current mobile revolution marks an important milestone in the history of online commerce, Coca Cola being the first brand to allow the purchase of its products through mobile SMS in 1997. Google also launched in 2006, its online payment service called Google Checkout. Later, with the help of Square, came the first Mobile Card Reader in 2010. In 2014 Amazon and Twitter joined forces to enable consumers to purchase and add products to their online baskets through tweets. The OC&C report describes the list of suppliers pioneers who lead the international online e-commerce, eBay and Amazon highlighting the U.S., followed by the German retailer Zalando and British rival ASOS. The Swedish furniture maker Ikea, tops the list of traditional trades that use e-commerce to boost its international expansion, followed by Swedish fashion brand H&M and American cosmetics seller Avon. The list of brands that use e-commerce to boost its international image is led by the German sports equipment manufacturer Adidas, followed by the manufacturer of luxury leather goods, specializing in travel goods, Louis Vuitton, the French brand of luxury fashion Hermès and also fashion brand Burberry. The evolution of e-commerce has been a constant and the figures speak for themselves. In 2012, worldwide e-commerce sales reached a record to exceed one trillion dollars. In 2014, worldwide online sales reached $1.5 trillion, representing an increase of 20.1% over last year. Online commerce has become a multimillion dollar business, as part of the daily lives of millions of people and has grown exponentially. A datum is that "Internet" fosters the advent of electronic commerce and May 17 being imposed by the UN as "Internet Day".

The trade is developing at a breakneck pace and is expected online retail sales to double by 2018 to 438 billion dollars, assuming a great opportunity for retail companies because it gives new impetus to grow rapidly. However, electronic commerce is no longer just a matter of retail sales, but are also increasingly gaining momentum wholesales; and has been for the opening of many stores to market electronic cigarettes in Spain, which bought products online wholesale different Chinese suppliers, although this method has also expanded into other sectors and products. The main difference between e-commerce retail and wholesale is that in the first line of credit is not managed, but the customer buys one or more products in a timely manner and takes immediate payment with credit card or method Similarly, but in most cases without existence of recurrence by the same client. In contrast, electronic wholesale, the customer usually takes orders and credit lines for payments are handled through deposits or wire transfers and other methods of domestic and international payment. This type of e-commerce is known as B2B, with different online stores, since the buyer usually knows codes or models of the products they buy repeatedly and later sell them retail, without for every purchase must navigate by a catalog online through their categories or subcategories. The results seen in this type of wholesale stores are often based on lists with columns of data with wholesale prices, units by type of packaging, a referential image, discounts, etc., and are quite different stores commonly known in which anyone has ever bougth sometime in the web.

United Kingdom, is known as the most advanced electronic market in the world, having generated in 2013 the largest trade surplus online, with more than a billion dollars, followed by the U.S. with a surplus of $ 180 million and Germany with 35 million dollars. The search engine Google estimated the value of border trade online from United States, Britain, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Holland and France was 25 billion dollars in 2013. Meanwhile, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce conducted an official estimate of online retail sales, which have reached 1.85 trillion yuan, representing a growth of 41.2% in 2013 over the previous year; while according to data from the Department of Commerce U.S. retail sales grew 16.9% over the same period, which confirms that Chinese consumers do a lot more shopping online to U.S. consumers. Total online shopping provided China was 13% higher than sales of its main competitor in this sector. It's so well, that the e-commerce industry in China has become one of the main engines of economic development, with significant help for those companies who want to invest in international markets. Another important fact about China is that the number of Chinese citizens who use the Internet grew by 8.5% reaching up to 618 million people by the end of 2013, representing a net increase of 52.5 million potential new consumers online, the same year beating the world record. Alibaba, the Chinese Amazon, recorded four billion euros in sales during Cyber Monday. Moreover, in Europe, according to the Spanish National Institute of Statistics, in 2013, 32% of the Spanish population shopped online. By 2014 Spain is estimated to increase by 13.4% to more than 12 million euros in 2013 and 55% of Spaniards did some online shopping. Also, e-commerce in Latin America moves 70 billion dollars and is for most electronic devices in transnational operations, even with a lot of growing some experts as Ian Cox PayPal. In Latin America, e-commerce is more mature in countries such as Chile (6% of all Latin American purchases) and Brazil, while Mexico has not yet reached 1%.

Regarding the methods of online payment, PayPal is already a benchmark worldwide leader in Europe. PayPal landed in Latin America about 3 years ago through Mexico and Brazil, and now reaches across the continent, still very good landing because consumers demanded a secure online payment method. The star product that is sold online form in the region are electronic devices, mainly acquired abroad. The particularity in Latin America is that online trade is cross-border. PayPal to gain ground had to implement payment by installments very common in countries like Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, where customers asked to pay for purchases in 12 monthly installments. Paypal has become the primary means of payment in the world that adopts the technology of fingerprint authentication Samsung. All these facts, along with shopping through smartphones and tablets have enabled the boom of online shopping as we know them today. The role of social networks in support of this growing trend is huge, since 50% of online consumers bought through social networks in 2013, according to a PwC report on the expectations and habits of the online buyer from 15,000 interviews with digital buyers worldwide. In the report, 43% of respondents claimed to have purchased through tablets and 41% through smartphones. The report advises that companies must move towards a path of "Total Retail" to ensure they return at four levels: organizational structure, customer experience, supply chain and technology. The organizational structure should focus more on the consumer and not on the channel, which will bring changes in senior management roles with the addition of the Chief Customer Officer as experienced in the management of customers able to centralize the demand chain to through marketing strategies, social media and creative services to the client using all available information to consumers through the use of Big data, which in turn allow them to configure custom experiences obviously respecting their privacy. Furthermore, the optimization of the supply chain is given not only from the point of view of costs, but also transparency, providing real-time what consumers want, where and when they want it. Finally, brands must have an efficient and innovative technology that allows them to collect more consumer information and interact with him outside the walls of a store offering experiences through all available channels at all times.

This is how clients ask to brands that build trust as a differential factor, even above the price and product availability. Customers are becoming more selective with the brands, giving value to a willingness to shop, location and staff (81% of those surveyed by PwC), a strategy different and attractive (64%) or marketing activity brand in social networks (50%). Customers are very interested in personalized offers, but not invasive, taking into account their tastes and reward their loyalty, for example 71% of respondents purchased in 2013 at your favorite stores for gifts or loyalty points and 21% entered the social profiles of their brands for promotional purposes. Purchases through multi-device, head of smartphones, gain more weight in the coming years. 41% bought through their smartphones and 43% via their tablets, demonstrating that the future will require offers available for multi-device (PC, tablet or smartphone). In addition to the current availability of 24 hours 7 days a week, brands should be interacting with the consumer at all times and at all levels (social networks, e-mailing, phone, etc). Another surprising fact is given by the increasing growth of international carriers and logistics, as demand for electronic commerce in time of international express delivery services supply chain increase revenue and earnings of these companies, such as the German giant DHL, increased by 3.4% this reason their income in 2013 compared to 2012 (about 77 million). Such companies (DHL, UPS, FedEx) are having great income from international business segment express package, with a growing trend in the volume of this type of shipment. DHL noted that in the U.S. market were reduced domestic operations and international were increased, which led them to focus on them, providing a more competitive service than the rest, mainly helping the growth of e-commerce division with international package parcels representing 26% of its volume.

Based on all the data presented, we can say that the international e-commerce online should be taken into account by all companies, so you should be able to be present in Internet edgy shape adapting to the needs and fashions every moment. To do this, companies must know how to reconvert international suppliers through the online e-commerce without neglecting their traditional trade and e-commerce can use it to enhance its international expansion while retaining its essence and tradition and help accelerate its image internationally. Data indicate how e-commerce is growing exponentially, not only nationally but also internationally. Companies should be aware that opening your online store alone already allows them to be present throughout the world, and the fact that wholesalers not mean it can not give the option on the online website wholesale , so eventually many companies only have corporate websites with content information. UK is the largest exporter of electronic commerce through, followed by the United States, Germany, Norway, Sweden and France. However, these countries still have much growing to do, and are followed by countries like China who are already leaders in international e-commerce, like Spain and Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico mainly) that can be of significant help to companies who want to invest and expand in international markets, preparing to reach them. It is shown that e-commerce is continually growing and is part of the lives of millions of people, is an opportunity for retailers because the boost to grow faster; but it has a ways to go electronic commerce is wholesale, being a good strategy that many wholesalers are prepared in this regard. Regarding the secure payment methods for the retail trade are well advanced, and it would be time to move on methods for wholesale international especially that provide even more, because we must not forget that sales online retail are more casual, while wholesale would be more durable over time. Businesses should spare no expense in terms of investing in new technologies and innovate in order to obtain more information from customers, and for this not only should have availability of sales through a computer, but also smartphones and tablets, and interact with customers in most social networks also maintaining its traditional business. Clearly there is a sector that is already underway in this sense, is to transport companies and logistics, so we could wait for that in the medium term, if the momentum of e-commerce International Wholesale is aided by a system of international payments insurance purchases appear and / or mergers between companies in the industry thereby offering a more comprehensive service by land, sea and air by the same company.

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Leonardo Dufau
LinkedIn