Just a little Cooqy

Disruptive technologies experience a predictable pattern of an initial frothy boom, followed by a hard crash, then a long, gradual, sustained period of build-out. A good article discussing this pattern as it has related to historically disruptive innovations can be found here.

The “E-commerce 2.0″ moniker may be a bit long in the tooth, but it represents the current build-out phase of Internet commerce. There won’t be a “Web 3.0″, or “E-commerce 3.0″. E-commerce 2.0 will be a sustained period of improving Internet Shopping for shoppers and sellers alike.

The build-out phase for E-commerce will be characterized by:

1. Enhancing the shopping experience with Rich Internet Applications (RIAs)
2. Extending commerce to more touch-points on the web via widgets
3. Leveraging the power of social networks
4. Improving the ability for shoppers to find what they want

Online shopping today is still mainly dominated by the remnants of the Web 1.0 boom. HTML was forced to dance and sing to the tune of “application technology”, which was never its original intention. Still, to the credit of the engineers they were able to get enough application functionality teetering on top of HTML to be acceptable for consumers to place orders. Most e-commerce websites today are still nothing more than static electronic catalogs…an online version of the old Sears catalog received in the mail.

Online shopping is ripe for the innovation that is just starting to occur in the E-commerce 2.0 build-out phase.

RIA technology was heaven-sent for online shopping. Shopping is a complex activity that uses all the senses mixed with unpredictable logic and emotion. RIA’s can provide a dynamic, interactive environment to engage consumers in what should be made to be a fun activity. I’ll explore what makes for good RIA designs for online shopping in a future post.

E-commerce 2.0 stores will stop being chained to their single dot-com domain point of presence. Online stores will begin providing customers with widgets so they can shop the store from wherever they want, like widgetized start pages provided by Netvibes, Protopage, and Pageflakes. For stores with Affiliate networks, they will also create widgets to advertise inventory throughout the web. An Affiliate with a blog about car audio systems can place the widget on his/her blog to drive customers to the store, while taking commissions for driving traffic.

Social networks like MySpace are ripe targets for online stores to find customers. Widgets will be used to enhance their presence within these social networks, funneling traffic to their store. MySpace already has many eBay sellers setting up social networks among those people who enjoy collecting, vintage clothing, etc. You can view some of these eBay sellers via Cooqy’s MySpace friend list.

Finding items of interest on the Internet is still frustrating. RIA-powered E-commerce 2.0 stores will experiment with new ways of shopping on the Internet. Etsy has a fascinating way to shop for handmade items by color, for example. Expect to see more and more innovations powered by RIA’s to help shoppers shop more effectively, above and beyond the familiar guided navigation provided by Endeca that is built into many popular e-commerce websites today.

Converting mailed paper catalogs into static electronic form at a single dot-com domain was the result of the Web 1.0 boom. The E-commerce 2.0 build-out phase will see Internet shopping transition into a more dynamic and social activity that occurs at many more touch points on the web, thanks to RIA’s and widgets.