The S-commerce revolution

News reaches UKTECH of the latest radical development in consumer retailing. Known simply as s-commerce, it is predicted to catch on quicker than the B2B and B2C web based versions of retail.

Apparently a number of independent contractors from both the IT and engineering sectors have already experienced s-commerce and are extremely enthusiastic about it. 'It's a real revelation,' according to Martin Blake, a test engineer from Sussex 'You just walk into a range of glass and brick buildings, known as shops, and choose from the items that are available for sale.'

Mr Blake was particularly impressed when he visited a clothes shop which he discovered while browsing in Brighton. 'I could actually try on a jacket to see if it fitted me. Then I was able to visualise the way I would look wearing the jacket.' Apparently this visualisation is made possible by two-dimensional viewing system, or 'mirror'.

Shops have been grouped together into horizontally integrated shopping portals, known as 'high streets' and are popular with the new generation of cash-rich, time-poor consumers. Often located in densely populated areas, they are convenient for users.

Users without the time or the technology to download large Flash graphics of trainers, waiting five days for delivery and hoping they will fit are increasingly being targeted. Richard Fahrab, a systems analyst raved, 'I can actually complete the transaction in real time and walk away with the goods.'

Consumers are expected to benefit from huge supply-chain efficiencies predicted to come from concentrating distribution into a series of high volume outlets in urban centres, typically close to where people live and work. Shops also reduce consumer frustration caused by having to return unsuitable goods, and delivery notes indicating that goods are available for collection from a depot across town.

One IT contractor put it more bluntly: 'Going to the shops is a real relief for me – I already spend all day in front of my bloody screen'.