The World is Evolving. 

“The World is Flat” (Friedman, 2007) and “The World is Spkiy” (Florida, 2005) were both written long before Internet commerce was a popular ‘thing’.  They were also written prior to the global pandemic which thrust everyone back into their homes to fend for themselves, and forced people to come up with new ways to hunt and gather products needed for survival.

I don’t think that the world is either ‘flat’ or ‘spiky’, but an adaptation of both depending upon the circumstances of life. The Internet (Which Friedman didn’t list as one of the top 10 “flatteners) has allowed every person with a connection to become an entrepreneur of sorts or a buyer. 

Luckily, the likes of Amazon, EBay, InstaCart and others were already poised to make shopping from home an instant reality, although, they needed to expand operations practically overnight.  But that’s another discussion.

Selling platforms mentioned earlier are more accessible and easier to use than ever before.  In 2020, e-commerce sales in the United States increased by 44% over that of 2019, and they raked in 21.3% of total sales in 2020, which is honestly less than I expected due to the pandemic (Fareeha, 2021).

After just a few weeks, when it was evident this issue wasn’t going to go away quickly, many people lost their jobs, and/or began trying to find alternative ways to continue to support themselves and their families.  They turned to working online by selling their wares or their services, or both.  Many major companies also sent their employees home to work, which caused platforms such as ZOOM to expand bandwidth also practically overnight. Every single person on the planet had to adapt to the changing environment.

Once the world gets back to normal, if that ever happens, I wonder which direction the future of commerce will turn.

 

Fareeha, A. (2021, Jan. 29). US ecommerce grows 44.0% in 2020. Digitalcommerce360. https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/us-ecommerce-sales/

The World Is Flat (2021, Jul 21). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Is_Flat

Florida, Richard. (2005). The world is spiky: The Atlantic Monthly. The World is Spiky. 48-51.