Another obvious unusual feature of e-commerce technologies
is there is one set of technical standards of the internet that is universal
standards. Internet are shared by all nations around the world and enable any
computer to link with any other computer regardless of the technology platform
used by each one of them. As an example, files can be exchanged with someone in
another country. In contrast, most traditional commerce technology differ from
one nation to the next. For instance, television and radio standards differ
around the world.
The universal technical standards of the internet and
e-commerce greatly lower market entry costs which is the cost that merchants
must pay simply to bring their goods to the market. At the same time, for
consumers, universal standards reduce search cost which is the effort required
to find suitable products.
In the past, only few companies could compete at a global
market after went through many different systems based on cultural and social
aspects of the host country. Such
commerce systems varied from one country to the next. E-commerce has decreased this affect tremendously
through the use of universal standards which are shared by all nations around
our world. Universal standards also develop networking externalities benefits
that arise because everyone uses the same technology.