Merchants not prepared for e-commerce boom

The typical online seller ships less than 400 orders per day, but competition for the smaller merchant market is expected to dramatically increase over the next year. In the residential market alone, 2.1bn orders will need delivery by 2003, according to Forrester.

Merchants will need to provide customers with high quality information and self-service systems. Manufacturers will also move toward the delivery of direct-to-consumer orders and overall, companies will need to develop their global delivery service to meet the increasing global demand.

Forrester advises that companies invest the same time and energy in developing their order fulfillment service as they do in driving online sales.