Already, in Europe and the US, books, insurance, music, clothes, real estate, financial services, groceries, automobiles, hardware and a ever-growing array of products can be purchased direct from either the manufacturer or from a large warehousing operation with few of the overheads associated with traditional retailing business. But the issues are much wider than this. There are legal and fiscal implications. E.business challenges traditional concepts of sovereignty in areas where government believes it can or must control or regulate commercial activity. The electronic revolution will impact on foreign relations.
Exports provide the cement for international relationships.
When exporting is conducted electronically via third nations it is hard to understand how the measurement of trade relations will any longer be possible. The electronic revolution also suggests that companies wherever they might be are unlikely much longer to just engage in their core business. Thus any service provider such as an airline or publication because of its direct link with consumers can see itself as an electronic retailer of products and services. The world of the mega-merger is understandably unattractive in countries where individuals or families have traditionally owned business or, more recently, if publicly quoted, are controlled by interconnected groups of Directors. The moment is fast approaching when, in the face of borderless commerce, amalgamation and rationalisation of business is likely to occur by force majeure.