S-commerce clicks
THERE goes Clickmango. Not click, clunk. This lovely dot.com company (featuring Joanna Lumley) offered to bring to your door a cornucopia of health foods, bubble baths and other comforts which you might have had to buy from Body Shop or Boots. Alas, it has been suffering from a high burn rate, which is dot.comese for running out of money. So rapid is the pace of change in the new economy that Clickmango's model has already been overtaken by events. Coming next, after e-commerce, b2b and b2c, is s-commerce. This revolutionary con- cept will enable consumers to make 'hits' on conveniently located depots. There they can inspect and select merchandise and even take it with them. They need not wait in for the postman or wonder whether the courier from Universal Postal Services will turn up two days later. Payment can be made by all the usual electronic means but in addition a convenient voucher system known as 'cash' will operate and be accept- ed at no extra charge. It is hoped that s- commerce outlets will cluster together, so that a series of hits for unrelated services can be quickly made, without churning from one Internet provider to another. Already these depots are becoming known as 'shops', which is where the s- comes from. S-commerce has been too much for Clicknriango. Other casualties of the new economy will follow.
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