The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is pleased
to respond to the Retail and Consumer Services Foresight Panel's consultation
on the report Clicks and Mortar: The new store fronts. The RSE is Scotland’s
premier Learned Society, comprising Fellows elected on the basis of
their distinction, from the full range of academic disciplines, and
from industry, commerce and the professions. The RSE has been closely
involved with Foresight since its inception, with the Scottish launch
of both the first and current phases of the exercise taking place at
the RSE. The Society has subsequently supported many Foresight initiatives
and organises a series of Foresight Seminars which aim to encourage
a dialogue between the science base and all sectors within Scotland
on the technological needs of individual sectors and of the potential
of the science base to address these needs. In collaboration with the
law firm Archibald, Campbell and Harley, WS, the Society has recently
initiated a series of Retailing Seminars, bringing together those interested
in this area from a range of different backgrounds, including retailing,
property surveying and management, academia, public sector and planning,
law, design and the media.
This response has been compiled with the assistance of a number of
Fellows with substantial experience of business and information technology.
Overall comments are:
- It would be beneficial for the Foresight report to provide further
information on the likely benefits/costs, complements/substitutes,
and strategies for companies to consider for the future
- The report should suggest ways in which the research community
can be influenced by the findings of the panel.
- While the ratio of consumption expenditure to total output is unlikely
to change significantly because of e-commerce, it is likely to result
in a number of important shifts. Examples include:* Greater interaction
between the buyer and seller on price and other quality issues.
- The availability of more reliable product information.
- The formation of closer links between the manufacturer and the
end-user.
- Instantaneous delivery of services such as university interactive
courses.
- There would also be merit in further highlighting the demographic
trends of an ageing society, how this could impact on the take-up
of e-commerce, and what steps could be taken by the e-commerce sector
to respond to these trends. Disability Discrimination legislation
will have a significant impact on the design of e-commerce systems
and research into the design of systems, which take account of these
demographic and legislative factors, would be beneficial.
Comments on specific areas of the report are addressed below:
Fulfillment and delivery
While the report centres on issues surrounding the process of selection
in e-commerce, greater attention should be paid to issues associated
with fulfillment and delivery. These areas are especially critical given
the statements about anticipated growth in goods which cannot be delivered
by electronic means. The issues may be manageable in urban areas, but
the problems of delivery will be quite severe in rural areas, especially
in the North of Scotland.
Skills requirements
The trends in e-commerce are to have customers undertake increasingly
more self-service operations with technology mediation. This demands
that consumers acquire the new technological skills necessary to operate
these channels. While the scenarios considered in the report do mention
the need for skills training, it is a critical issue which will have
a very significant impact on the commercial uptake of e-commerce services
and deserves more prominence in the report's highlights. It would also
be useful if the report pointed towards a concerted programme of 'popular'
education via TV and media and gave support to initiatives, such as
the Open University's new Internet course in which some 9,000 students
have registered.
Global context
The report has, perhaps justifiably, been written for a UK audience
but it should build on the global nature of the Internet marketplace
as an opportunity for British companies to broaden their commercial
reach. There is an important omission of the European dimension, both
in terms of the recognising the need for a variety of languages to be
accommodated in the user interfaces designed for these e-commerce services,
and of considering the Euro and other international currency issues.
The US model
The US model is a key assertion in the report and the mainstay of the
optimism with which the report is delivered. Whilst this is a valid
point of view, and the report identifies a bulleted list of reasons
for the assertion, it must also be recognised that since the e-commerce
market in the UK is some 2-3 years behind the market in the US, alternative
access technologies to the PC-based Internet of the US market, have
appeared already in the UK. These are identified variously in the report
as digital television, electronic games consoles and mobile telephony.
The report, however, singles out the digital television solution as
being the powerhouse for the future of e-commerce in UK, rather than
offering a more balanced consideration of alternative access technologies,
especially mobile telephony.
Digital television
The report presents digital television as an alternative e-commerce
entity, almost in competition with the Internet rather than identifying
the television as simply an Internet access device (an alternative to
the PC or the mobile telephone). Whilst it may be the ambitions of television
media companies to present proprietary standards for their TV-based
e-commerce channels, with governed access to content and to Internet
sites, the experience in the US in the mid 90's when proprietor on-line
services such as Delphi, Prodigy and even the first incarnation of Microsoft
Network (MSN) were developed, was that these failed to survive in the
face of the open standards of the IP protocol of the Internet. Looking
back at this report in five years time, the same message may appear
- that the television companies failed in their attempts to hold back
the tide of the open Internet standards, failed to secure their proprietary
content, and failed to become the cornerstone of e-commerce for UK consumers.
Additional Information
In responding to this consultation the Society would like to draw attention
to the following Royal Society of Edinburgh responses which are of relevance
to this subject: Royal Society of Edinburgh Foresight Seminar on the
Ageing Population (December 1999); Royal Society of Edinburgh Foresight
Seminar on Manufacturing 2020 (February 2000); and Royal Society of
Edinburgh Foresight Seminar on Information, Communications and Media
(March 2000). Copies of the above publications and further copies of
this response are available from the Research Officer, Dr
Marc Rands
June 2000 |
