According to a new Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group study, the electronic commerce market is poised to experience 300% overall growth in the next two years.
While the survey finds that the Energy industry and Public Sector lead with
current business transactions over the Internet at 23.3% and 20.4%
respectively, the greatest penetration for e-commerce will be in the
Financial Services industry, with a near 70% adoption rate expected
within two years, driven by a dramatic increase in consumer transactions.
The two-year forecasts for percent of customer transactions in other
industries are also encouraging: Consumer Business (43%), Public Sector
(38.8%), Energy (37.2%), Manufacturing (34.1%), Health Care (33.3%).
“Until now, businesses have been hesitant to adopt e-commerce because of
security concerns or the perception that their customers simply aren’t using
it to buy products and services,” said Doug Downing, a Partner at Deloitte
Consulting.
“Now, companies are coming to the realization that security will always be an issue–but that it’s less of a concern than missing out on a vital new channel that could provide a tremendous competitive advantage.”
The Deloitte Consulting 1998 Global Survey of Chief Information Executives
polled over 1,000 CIOs in six major industries in 25 countries. It provides
a snapshot of the present and a projection of what the IT landscape will
look like in two years, based on CIOs’ current and projected technology use.