In 1995, QVC will introduce an on-line shopping service. Customers will log on to their personal computers to find thousands of products available for quick delivery at affordable prices. QVC is making substantial investments to harness the personal computer and modem as tools to increase its share of the home shopping market. There are no conflicting state laws preventing organizations from conducting electronic commerce across state lines. For example, through CommerceNet, a consortium of companies and organizations exploring ways to conduct electronic commerce, buyers can browse multimedia catalogs, solicit bids and place orders, all over the Internet.
Sellers can respond to bids, schedule production and coordinate deliveries.
Since it started in 1994, CommerceNet has fielded over one million electronic requests. Application developers must work with users up front to design applications that are easy to adpt, require minimal training and are specific to their needs. Implementation must be as simple as possible so that the changes and new skills required to use the application are perceived to be trivial. Otherwise customers will become easily discouraged and will not use the applications that could assist them. Telemedicine trials in South Carolina, for example, show that rural physicians are simply too busy caring for patients to free up much time for their own or staff training.