No Road Necessary: E-commerce provides opportunity to conduct business statewide.

AuthorSimonelli, Isaac Stone
PositionTELECOM & TECH

The Last Frontier's massive, transient population of military personnel, its rural geography, and its depth and breadth of artisan products makes it a prime location for the development of e-commerce businesses.

"Alaska and Alaska products--particularly quality artisanal products--have cache. This also holds true for cloud funding, tourism, and across other e-commerce platforms," says Juliet Shepherd, who is currently looking at the scalability of businesses in the Interior as part of her job as the project manager of technology-led development and cold weather testing for the Fairbanks Economic Development Corporation (FEDC). "Everyone and their mother wants to engage with Alaska businesses. Alaska is very high profile right now--and particularly accessible for someone wanting to engage in e-commerce."

The Enterprise Guide to Global Ecommerce anticipates about a 246 percent increase in worldwide e-commerce sales, from $1.3 trillion in 2014 to $4.5 trillion in 2021. Among the mammoths growing the e-commerce market are familiar names such as Amazon, eBay, Groupon, Etsy, and Shopify. But even on the podium of largest e-commerce platforms one finds a few lesser known names: Jingdong, a Chinese company with more than a quarter billion users, and Alibaba Group, which operates in more than 200 countries.

There are lots of competitive e-commerce channels, channels from other countries such as China and Russia that are worth exploring thoroughly before supplying identifying financial information or business data and metrics," Shepherd says.

"Platforms from these geographic areas may be very interested in Alaska, but might not be good for Alaska businesses. More due diligence needs to be done to better understand these platforms and associated risks--which may not be immediately apparent to business owners or consumers."

FEDC is making the effort to clarify the risks associated with using foreign e-commerce platforms. It expects to have more information about such options in the near future. With that said, there are other companies that FEDC is far more confident about.

The Amazon Effect

"Amazon has made a concerted effort to engage Alaska businesses. Part of this is through Amazon Exclusives, which makes it much easier for businesses to signup and reach more customers," Shepherd says.

Through Amazon Exclusives, one of the company's programs available to small and medium-sized businesses, sellers can have their products featured on Amazon, potentially garnering a great deal more traction. Amazon Exclusives is designed to give customers access to innovative products from up-and-coming brands in several categories...

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