Studio 4

Technology and its effect on E-Commerce

Luke Sposato

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

March 18, 2019

Meola, Andrew. “E-Commerce & Online Payment Technologies Overview & Trends”, Business

Insider. 21 Dec. 2016. https://www.businessinsider.com/ecommerce-payment-technologies-

overview-trends-2016-10. Accessed 12 Mar. 2019

This article from Business Insider written by Andrew Meola goes into the ever

growing online payment segment and how the growth of technology affects the e-commerce

world. Business Insider is considered one of the most reliable websites for businesses and

trade. Meola is a graduate of Syracuse University and is the director of Subscription Marketing

for Business Insider Intelligence. Before Business Insider, Meola worked a part of a local news

group discussing a variety of topics such as sports, entertainment, and finance.

Meola begins by explaining how E-commerce is growing at a rapid pace and how it is

becoming one of the main components of the overall trade market. Meola credits the e-

commerce growth to the increase of online and electronic payments instead of retail. Stats

from 2016 show 2016 of E-Commerce increasing by 16%, while total retail sales only increased

by 2%. The author provides more statistics of online payments with consumers spending $385

billion via online payments, with a projected number of $632 billion by 2020. He does not find

this surprising considering the healthy growth that e-commerce has been having over the years.

Meola also writes about online payment trends. The three leading segments in the

digital world are media, sporting goods, and hobbies. He brings up companies such as Best Buy,

who have thrived under the online purchase segment, but is now getting overthrown by

Amazon, which has been increasing at an exponential pace since 2013. Meola says one of the

most surprising markets in the online payment section has been the furniture market despite
its logistical barriers. Online furniture sales make up 25% of the total furniture sales. He notes

that the other markets that are also getting dominated by e-commerce.

In conclusion, Andrew Meola wrote a very descriptive article on how e-commerce is

growing due to the growth of technology. Meola backs up his evidence with facts and statistics.

This article helped me very much to see how much growth has been in e-commerce for my

topic.

Joshi, Naveen. “4 Powerful Ways Artificial Intelligence is Molding E-Commerce”, Forbes. 5 Aug.

2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2018/08/05/4-powerful-ways-artificial-

intelligence-is-molding-e-commerce/#745371ba4b11. Accessed 12 Mar. 2019.

This article is written by Naveen Joshi for Forbes about four huge ways Artificial

Intelligence (AI) is impacting E-Commerce. Forbes is arguably the most respected magazine and

website when it comes to money. Naveen is a columnist and the CEO of Allerin, which develops

technology and engineering solutions focused on providing the best customer experiences.

Joshi starts off the article by describing AI and how it is a huge enhancer in e-

commerce for both the costumer and seller. The author states that an important feature of AI is

chatbot technology. Chatbots are found on the home page of e-commerce websites and

mobile apps. Chatbots are programmed to “talk” or communicate with a customer through

voice or text in a relatively real life manner. Joshi points out that chatbots are very important

and can assist the consumer with purchases the right product, checking product availability,

and purchasing.

According to the author, the second big wave of AI is predictive sales, which is a

“deep learning” statistical programming methodology that uses algorithms to manage and use
very large data sets. The importance of predictive sales is to measure the customer’s behavior.

It also helps to provide data on what product will be in demand and how to manage inventory.

The third AI feature that is described is called a recommendation engine. Naveen

Joshi mentions that recommendation engines are used by retail companies to identify their

target audience. He says that recommendation engines use AI algorithms in web search that

record critical details on how a product is being searched. The recommendation engine then

uses its finding to determine what appeals to the customers searches.

The fourth aspect of AI that is discussed is warehouse automation, which is major

focus of e-retail businesses. Warehouse automation describes a facility where the tasks for

storing, retrieving, and moving inventory for a company are carried out by automated systems.

Naveen Joshi mentions that warehouse automation helps determine the trend of sales for a

company and can increase the speed and efficiency of operations.

This article is a very descriptive on how AI is affecting e-commerce. Naveen Joshi

breaks down the four key components of AI impact in a very well written and thoughtful way.

This article is useful for my final paper as it gives specific examples of how the technology

related to AI technology is changing e- commerce. I’m sure moving forward it will even become

a larger factor.