Commerce, buying stuff, over the Internet, is going to be so amazingly big in the future it will dwarf all traditional retailers.

I cannot emphasize this enough. In the future, ten years, twenty years, thirty years, you will be able to purchase literally anything from your computer.

You’ll be able to get anything, and I do mean anything, shipped straight to your front door, within a few days.

And I think there will be companies out there trying desperately to get that time for delivery down to next day delivery for most things. Especially if the items are perishable such as food.

I think for most purchases, people will stop going to shops. There will be some items you need to see and handle, furniture, clothing, fruits and vegetables.

For many items, such as furniture, white goods (fridges, stoves, microwaves), clothing, shoes, and electronics, retail will become more like car dealerships.

You will wander around a vast showroom of stuff, handling items, feeling the texture of the item, looking at the colour.

You order it, then you go home, and either by the time you get home, or within a few hours of getting home, your new stuff shows up at the front door.

You still get the visceral experience of shopping for certain items, but you, as a consumer, get the convenience of not having the schlep those items home. And the shop doesn’t have to carry massive inventory.

But for a lot of purchases, either because you have purchased it before, or you’re reasonably assured of what you will be buying, power cable for my computer for instance, why leave the house?

Online retail and commerce will be bigger than home shopping catalogues ever were.

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