Electronic Commerce and the Food Industry

It’s 1950 and you want to grab a bite to eat for dinner. You could not text friends to get together and head out and had to wait to get to the place to order the food. Now it is 2013 and you want to grab a bite to dinner. One could text their friends and ask them what they want to eat from the local food place. You then could text in your order from home so it is ready when you get there. This advancement of technology is just a part of a whole called electronic commerce. Electronic commerce is business conducted through the use of computers, telephones, fax machines, barcode readers, credit cards, automated teller machines, or other electronic appliances without exchange of paper-based documents.” [1] This has changed the way we carry out business. Aside from ordering food on the spot at a restaurant, local super markets are taking advantage of electronic commerce changes. “At Stop & Shop, customers are selecting products in the store and then shopping for them online. Wal-Mart is also revising its online strategy, offering same-day delivery for food items in select markets that are ordered online. General Mills has a strategy that offers gluten-free products on the Internet that cannot be found in traditional food stores.” [2] These businesses are in the shadows of Amazon and other online stores, yet they are striving just as much with the advancements of electronic commerce. Retail food stores are changing at the fastest rate. It could be said that presenting food online may be a challenge for electronic commerce. “Without the benefit of smell or taste, selling food and beverage products through the digital channel presents a host of challenges.” [3] This should not be a problem in the world we live in today and the way people eat. People know what they want from the supermarket and could easily order their groceries online without heading to the store. This argument is very weak because a person could easily browse for other foods. People are on Facebook browsing around for hours, therefore a person could search a grocery store itinerary on the Internet. It would be very interesting to see the lines at the local grocery stores begin to wane as online shopping through electronic commerce grows. I am even curious to see what it would be like to shop online for these items. By doing this assignment alone, it has already swayed me into how things are beginning to shape for the future. Electronic commerce is the direction that all businesses are being pushed toward. _______________________________________________________________________________________ [1] http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/electronic-commerce-E-Commerce.html [2] http://www.supplychainbrain.com/content/industry-verticals/food-beverage/single-article-page/article/e-commerce-has-explosive-impact-on-food-beverage-industry/ [3] http://www.gorillagroup.com/Our-Work/Areas-of-Expertise/Ecommerce-Food-Beverage