Internet commerce and software agents : cases, technologies, and opportunities

The Internet has created tremendous business opportunities and is revolutionizing the whole structure of retail merchandising and shopping. Internet usage around the world is said to be doubling every 10 days. The number of people on the Internet is expected to increase tenfold from around 100 million in 1999 to one billion by 2005. The biggest transformation resulting from this is in the area of Internet commerce, which is enabling participating businesses to simultaneously serve both domestic and foreign customers, even from the first day of their operation. There are many examples demonstrating that organizations can reap benefits if they can innovate successfully using Internet commerce. Consequently, marketers may spend large sums to create and promote online brands. According to an April 2000 Forrester research report, the rush for customer acquisition will swell the online promotions market to $14 billion by 2005. So there is no doubt that it will be imperative for businesses to be part of the global Internet commerce community. With the development of Internet trading, the amount of business information available on the Internet is growing at an extraordinary speed. Management, security, legal and other issues are arising accordingly. Existing businesses are seeking answers to the question of if and how they may adapt their business processes to meet the new demands and new startups are arising to take advantage of the shifting strategic horizons of Internet commerce.