Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property.
The definition of vandalism allows to distinguish hostile behavior
aimed to damage or destroy the object, instrumental behavior consisting
of damage or destruction caused to an object as a mean to achieve other
goals (appropriation of another's property, sabotage), and behavior
motivated by a desire to express oneself through the degradation of
objects as well as a play vandalism (breaking window panes).
The term includes property damage, such as graffiti and defacement directed towards any property without permission of the owner. The term finds its roots in an Enlightenment view that the Germanic Vandals were a uniquely destructive people.
Etymology
The Vandals sacking Rome
The Vandals, an ancient Germanic people, are associated with senseless destruction as a result of their sack of Rome under King Genseric in 455. During the Enlightenment, Rome was idealized, while the Goths
and Vandals were blamed for its destruction. The Vandals may not have
been any more destructive than other invaders of ancient times, but they
did inspire British poet John Dryden to write, Till Goths, and Vandals, a rude Northern race, Did all the matchless Monuments deface (1694). However, the Vandals did intentionally damage statues, which may be why their name is associated with the vandalism of art. The term Vandalisme was coined in 1794 by Henri Grégoire, bishop of Blois, to describe the destruction of artwork following the French Revolution.
The term was quickly adopted across Europe. This new use of the term
was important in colouring the perception of the Vandals from later Late
Antiquity, popularising the pre-existing idea that they were a barbaric
group with a taste for destruction.
Historically, vandalism has been justified by painter Gustave Courbet
as destruction of monuments symbolizing "war and conquest". Therefore,
it is often done as an expression of contempt, creativity, or both. Gustave Courbet's attempt, during the 1871 Paris Commune, to dismantle the Vendôme column, a symbol of the past Napoleon III authoritarian Empire, was one of the most celebrated events of vandalism. Nietzsche himself would meditate after the Commune on the "fight against culture", taking as example the intentional burning of the Tuileries Palace on 23 May 1871. "The criminal fight against culture is only the reverse side of a criminal culture" wrote Klossowski after quoting Nietzsche.
In a proposal to the International Conference for Unification of Criminal Law held in Madrid in 1933, Raphael Lemkin envisaged the creation of two new international crimes (delicta juris gentium):
the crime of barbarity, consisting in the extermination of racial,
religious, or social collectivities, and the crime of vandalism,
consisting in the destruction of cultural and artistic works of these
groups. The proposal was not accepted.
As a crime
Vandalized shooting stand in Germany
Vandalism on a street sign
Private citizens commit vandalism when they willfully damage or deface the property of others or the commons. Some vandalism may qualify as culture jamming or sniggling:
it is thought by some to be artistic in nature even though carried out
illegally or without the property owner's permission. Examples include
at least some graffiti art, billboard "liberation", and possibly crop circles. Criminal vandalism takes many forms. Graffiti on public property is common in many inner cities as part of a gang culture, where they might be used as territorial markers.
More serious forms of vandalism that may take place during public unrest such as rioting can involve the willful destruction of public and private property.
Vandalism per se is sometimes considered one of the less serious common
crimes, but it can become quite serious and distressing when committed
extensively, violently, or as an expression of hatred and intimidation.
In response, local governments have adopted various legal measures to
prevent vandalism, but research has shown that the conventional
strategies employed by the government in response to at least unapproved
graffiti are not the most effective.
Examples
Examples of vandalism include salting lawns, cutting trees without permission, egg throwing, breaking windows, arson, spraying paint on others' properties, tagging, placing glue into locks, tire slashing, keying (scratching) paint, throwing shoes on power lines
or similar structures, ransacking a property, flooding a house by
clogging a sink and leaving the water running, and pulling up plants
from the roots without permission.
Political
Armand Călinescu's memorial with the bronze plaque stolen and the name of the assassin written over.
In elections, opposing candidates' supporters may engage in
"political vandalism" — the act of defacing opponents' political
posters, bumper stickers, billboards, and other street marketing
material. Although the nature of this material is temporary, its effect
can be long-lasting as it may reflect both negatively and positively on
the candidate whose material is being vandalized as well as on the
presumed candidate whose supporters are engaging in the vandalism.
In addition, activists may use the tactic of property destruction
as means of protest, e.g. by smashing the windows of banks, shops and
government institutions and setting fire to cars. This often takes place
during riots but can also happen as a stand-alone event, e.g. by animal rights
activists destroying property owned by farmers, hunters, biotech
companies, and research facilities and setting free animals (which is
sometimes referred to as eco-terrorism by opponents). Vandalism is also a common tactic of black blocs.
Motives
Actions of this kind can be ascribed to anger or envy, or to
spontaneous, opportunistic behaviour, possibly for peer acceptance or
bravado in gang
cultures, or disgruntlement with the target (victim) person or society.
Opportunistic vandalism of this nature may also be filmed, the
mentality of which can be akin to happy slapping. The large-scale prevalence of gang graffiti
in some inner cities has almost made it acceptable to the societies
based there, so much so that it may go unnoticed, or not be removed,
possibly because it may be a fruitless endeavour, to be graffitied on
once again. Greed can motivate vandalism as can some political ideologies, wish to draw attention to problems, frustration, even playfulness. Youngsters, the most common vandals, frequently experience low status and boredom.
Vandalism enables powerless people to attack those above them, take
control and frighten others. Unpunished vandalism can provide relief
which reinforces the behaviour. Vandalism by one person can lead to imitation.
Teenage boys and men in their 20s are most likely to vandalize, but
older adults and females are also known to sometimes vandalize, with
young children occasionally vandalizing, but in a much smaller form,
such as making small crayon drawings on walls.
Criminological research into vandalism has found that it serves
many purposes for those who engage in it and stems from a variety of
motives. Sociologist Stanley Cohen describes seven different types of vandalism:
Peer pressure
– Teenagers spend more time away from home with peers whether they act
constructively or destructively can depend on the contacts they make.
Disobeying authority can appear cool.
Tactical vandalism (to advance some end other than acquiring money
or property – such as breaking a window to be arrested and get a bed for
the night in a police cell).
Ideological vandalism (carried out to further an explicit ideological cause or deliver a message).
Vindictive vandalism (for revenge).
Play vandalism (damage resulting from children's games).
Malicious vandalism (damage caused by a violent outpouring of
diffuse frustration and rage that often occurs in public settings). Cohen's original typology was improved upon by Mike Sutton whose research led him to add a seventh sub-type of vandalism – Peer Status Motivated Vandalism.
Reaction of authorities
Two billboards with the same original content, the billboard on the right being an example of subvertising — vandalizing with a political message.
In view of its incivility, punishment
for vandalism can be particularly severe in some countries. In
Singapore, for example, a person who attempts to cause or commits an act
of vandalism may be liable to imprisonment for up to 3 years and may also be punished with caning. Vandalism in the UK is construed as an environmental crime and may be punished with an ASBO (Anti-Social Behaviour Order).
In the 1990s, former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani
cracked down on "quality of life crimes", including graffiti. NY Parks
Commissioner Henry J. Stern described graffiti as "a metaphor for urban
decay perhaps best shown in 'A Clockwork Orange'" adding that "New York City will not be like that".
Cybervandalism
Cybervandalism is vandalism on the internet. For example, vandalism on Wikipedia
involves adding questionable content, removing content, or changing
content in order to make it questionable, generally with the objective
of harming Wikipedia's reputation. Forms of online vandalism have been
recorded, the most common of which is website defacement. Vandalism on web maps has been called "cartographic vandalism".
Another form of cybervandalism is the creation of malware such as viruses, Trojan horses, and spyware, which can harm computers. A particularly virulent form of cybervandalism is ransomware,
which is used to extort money from computer owners, and can even go so
far as to carry a destructive malware payload that harms the system if
payment isn't forthcoming within a certain time limit.
Defacement
People defacing the walls of the Golconda Fort in Hyderabad, India
Defacement is a type of vandalism that involves damaging the
appearance or surface of something. The object of damage may be
architecture, books, paintings, sculpture, or other forms of art.
Examples of defacement include:
Marking or removing the part of an object (especially images, be
they on the page, in illustrative art or as a sculpture) designed to
hold the viewers' attention
Scoring a book cover with a blade
Splashing paint over a painting in a gallery
Smashing the nose of a sculpted bust
Damaging or chiselling off sculpted coats of arms
Altering the content of web sites and publicly editable repositories to include nonsensical or whimsical references
Iconoclasm led to the defacement of many religious artworks.
As art
A sticker reading "The HELL with SHELL" photographed in Michigan in 1973
Though vandalism in itself is illegal, it is often also an integral part of modern popular culture. French painter Gustave Courbet's attempt to disassemble the Vendôme column during the 1871 Paris Commune was probably one of the first artistic vandalist acts, celebrated at least since Dada performances during World War I. The Vendôme column was considered a symbol of the recently deposed Second Empire of Napoleon III, and dismantled as such.
After the burning of the Tuileries Palace on 23 May 1871, Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
himself meditated about the "fight against culture", wondering what
could justify culture if it were to be destroyed in such a "senseless"
manner (the arguments are: culture is justified by works of art and
scientific achievements; exploitation is necessary to those
achievements, leading to the creation of exploited people who then fight
against culture. In this case, culture cannot be legitimised by art
achievements, and Nietzsche writes: "I {also} know what it means:
fighting against culture". After quoting him, Klossowski writes: "The criminal fight against culture is only the reverse side of a criminal culture".
As destruction of monument, vandalism can only have sense in a culture respecting history, archeology - Nietzsche spoke of monumental history. As destruction of monumental history, vandalism was assured a long life (as Herostratus proved): Performance art could make such a claim, as well as Hakim Bey's poetic terrorism or Destroy 2000 Years of Culture from Atari Teenage Riot. Gustave Courbet's declaration stated:
Attendu que la colonne Vendôme est un monument dénué
de toute valeur artistique, tendant à perpétuer par son expression les
idées de guerre et de conquête qui étaient dans la dynastie impériale,
mais que réprouve le sentiment d’une nation républicaine, [le citoyen
Courbet] émet le vœu que le gouvernement de la Défense nationale veuille
bien l’autoriser à déboulonner cette colonne.
('As the Vendôme column is a monument devoid of any
artistic value, whose expression tends to perpetuate the ideas of war
and conquest from the imperial dynasty, but that reject the sentiment of
a republican nation, citizen Courbet declares that the government of
National Defense should allow him to dismantle this column.)
Hence, painter Courbet justified the dismantlement of the Vendôme
column on political grounds, downgrading its artistic value. Vandalism
poses the problem of the value of art compared to life's hardships:
Courbet thought that the political values transmitted by this work of
art neutralized its artistic value. His project was not followed;
however, on 12 April 1871, the Commune voted to dismantle the imperial
symbol, and the column was taken down on 8 May. After the assault on the
Paris Commune by Adolphe Thiers, Gustave Courbet was condemned to pay part of the expenses.
In 1974, Norman Mailer glorified the art of vandalism in his essay "The Faith of Graffiti", which likened tagging in New York City to the work of Giotto and Rauschenberg. New York Authorities responded by coating subway walls with Teflon paint, jailing taggers and requiring hardware stores to keep spray paint under lock and key.
Tags, designs, and styles of writing are commonplace on clothing, and are an influence on many of the corporate logos. Many skateparks
and similar youth-oriented venues are decorated with commissioned
graffiti-style artwork, and in many others patrons are welcome to leave
their own. There is still, however, a fine line between vandalism as an
artform, as a political statement, and as a crime. Bristol-born guerrilla artist Banksy's
claim is that official vandalism is far worse than that perpetrated by
individuals, and that he is decorating buildings of no architectural
merit.
Graphic design
Defacing could also be one of the techniques that many graphic
designers use, by applying their own hand writing on a graphic itself.
Sometimes the use of this technique might be mistaken as vandalism to
the original work, as exemplified by the work of Stefan Sagmeister, including his Lou Reed CD cover. A unique use of the defacement technique is the CD cover for A.P.C. by Jean Touitou,
where the designer wrote the title, volume number, and date with her
own hand writing on the pre-print blank CD. Creative vandalism of this
sort is not limited to writing and sketching. For example, the spraying
on the KPIST album Golden coat for MNW Records by Sweden graphic uses gold
spray, which may be considered an act of vandalism, but the customer
may also appreciate the unicity of each cover that had been sprayed gold
in different ways.
1981: Thomson Holidays UK is the first business-to-business (B2B) online shopping system to be installed.
1982: Minitel was introduced nationwide in France by France Télécom and used for online ordering.
1983: California State Assembly holds first hearing on "electronic commerce" in Volcano, California.
Testifying are CPUC, MCI Mail, Prodigy, CompuServe, Volcano Telephone,
and Pacific Telesis. (Not permitted to testify is Quantum Technology,
later to become AOL.)
1984: Gateshead SIS/Tesco is first B2C online shopping system and Mrs Snowball, 72, is the first online home shopper
1984: In April 1984, CompuServe launches the Electronic Mall in the US and Canada. It is the first comprehensive electronic commerce service.
1989: In May 1989, Sequoia Data Corp. Introduced Compumarket, the
first internet based system for e-commerce. Sellers and buyers could
post items for sale and buyers could search the database and make
purchases with a credit card.
1994: Netscape releases the Navigator browser in October under the code name Mozilla. Netscape 1.0 is introduced in late 1994 with SSL encryption that made transactions secure.
1994: "Ten Summoner's Tales" by Sting becomes the first secure online purchase through NetMarket.
1995: The US National Science Foundation lifts its former strict prohibition of commercial enterprise on the Internet.
1995: Thursday 27 April 1995, the purchase of a book by Paul Stanfield, Product Manager for CompuServe UK, from W H Smith's
shop within CompuServe's UK Shopping Centre is the UK's first national
online shopping service secure transaction. The shopping service at
launch featured W H Smith, Tesco, Virgin Megastores/Our Price, Great Universal Stores (GUS), Interflora, Dixons Retail, Past Times, PC World (retailer) and Innovations.
1995: eBay is founded by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb. It is the first online auction site supporting person-to-person transactions.
1995: The first commercial-free 24-hour, internet-only radio stations, Radio HK and NetRadio start broadcasting.
1996: The use of Excalibur BBS with replicated "Storefronts" was an early implementation of electronic commerce started by a group of SysOps in Australia and replicated to global partner sites.
1999: Alibaba Group is established in China. Business.com sold for US$7.5 million to eCompanies, which was purchased in 1997 for US$149,000. The peer-to-peer filesharing software Napster launches. ATG Stores launches to sell decorative items for the home online.
2001: eBay has the largest userbase of any e-commerce site.
2001: Alibaba.com achieved profitability in December 2001.
2002: eBay acquires PayPal for $1.5 billion. Niche retail companies Wayfair and NetShops are founded with the concept of selling products through several targeted domains, rather than a central portal.
2014: US e-commerce and Online Retail sales projected to reach $294
billion, an increase of 12 percent over 2013 and 9% of all retail sales. Alibaba Group has the largest Initial public offering ever, worth $25 billion.
2015: Amazon.com accounts for more than half of all e-commerce growth, selling almost 500 Million SKU's in the US.
2017: Retail e-commerce sales across the world reaches $2.304 trillion, which was a 24.8 percent increase than previous year.
2017: Global e-commerce transactions generate $29.267 trillion, including $25.516 trillion for business-to-business (B2B) transactions and $3.851 trillion for business-to-consumer (B2C) sales.
Business application
An example of an older generation of avatar-style automated online assistant on a merchandising website.
Some common applications related to electronic commerce are:
In the United States, certain electronic commerce activities are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). These activities include the use of commercial e-mails, online advertising and consumer privacy. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 establishes national standards for direct marketing over e-mail. The Federal Trade Commission Act
regulates all forms of advertising, including online advertising, and
states that advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive.
Using its authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits
unfair or deceptive practices, the FTC has brought a number of cases to
enforce the promises in corporate privacy statements, including promises
about the security of consumers' personal information. As a result, any corporate privacy policy related to e-commerce activity may be subject to enforcement by the FTC.
Conflict of laws in cyberspace is a major hurdle for
harmonization of legal framework for e-commerce around the world. In
order to give a uniformity to e-commerce law around the world, many
countries adopted the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce (1996).
Internationally there is the International Consumer
Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN), which was formed in 1991
from an informal network of government customer fair trade
organisations. The purpose was stated as being to find ways of
co-operating on tackling consumer problems connected with cross-border
transactions in both goods and services, and to help ensure exchanges of
information among the participants for mutual benefit and
understanding. From this came Econsumer.gov, an ICPEN initiative since
April 2001. It is a portal to report complaints about online and related
transactions with foreign companies.
There is also Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) was
established in 1989 with the vision of achieving stability, security
and prosperity for the region through free and open trade and
investment. APEC has an Electronic Commerce Steering Group as well as
working on common privacy regulations throughout the APEC region.
In Australia, Trade is covered under Australian Treasury Guidelines for electronic commerce and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission regulates and offers advice on how to deal with businesses online, and offers specific advice on what happens if things go wrong.
In the United Kingdom, The Financial Services Authority (FSA) was formerly the regulating authority for most aspects of the EU's Payment Services Directive (PSD), until its replacement in 2013 by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority.
The UK implemented the PSD through the Payment Services Regulations
2009 (PSRs), which came into effect on 1 November 2009. The PSR affects
firms providing payment services and their customers. These firms
include banks, non-bank credit card issuers and non-bank merchant
acquirers, e-money issuers, etc. The PSRs created a new class of
regulated firms known as payment institutions (PIs), who are subject to
prudential requirements. Article 87 of the PSD requires the European
Commission to report on the implementation and impact of the PSD by 1
November 2012.
In China, the Telecommunications Regulations of the People's Republic of China (promulgated on 25 September 2000), stipulated the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) as the government department regulating all telecommunications related activities, including electronic commerce.
On the same day, The Administrative Measures on Internet Information
Services released, is the first administrative regulation to address
profit-generating activities conducted through the Internet, and lay the
foundation for future regulations governing e-commerce in China.
On 28 August 2004, the eleventh session of the tenth NPC Standing
Committee adopted The Electronic Signature Law, which regulates data
message, electronic signature authentication and legal liability issues.
It is considered the first law in China's e-commerce legislation. It
was a milestone in the course of improving China's electronic commerce
legislation, and also marks the entering of China's rapid development
stage for electronic commerce legislation.
Forms
Contemporary electronic commerce can be classified into two
categories. The first category is business based on types of goods sold
(involves everything from ordering "digital" content for immediate
online consumption, to ordering conventional goods and services, to
"meta" services to facilitate other types of electronic commerce). The
second category is based on the nature of the participant (B2B, B2C, C2B and C2C);
On the institutional level, big corporations and financial
institutions use the internet to exchange financial data to facilitate
domestic and international business. Data integrity and security are pressing issues for electronic commerce.
Aside from traditional e-commerce, the terms m-Commerce (mobile commerce) as well (around 2013) t-Commerce have also been used.
Global trends
In 2010, the United Kingdom had the highest per capita e-commerce spending in the world.
As of 2013, the Czech Republic was the European country where
e-commerce delivers the biggest contribution to the enterprises´ total
revenue. Almost a quarter (24%) of the country's total turnover is
generated via the online channel.
Among emerging economies, China's e-commerce presence continues
to expand every year. With 668 million Internet users, China's online
shopping sales reached $253 billion in the first half of 2015,
accounting for 10% of total Chinese consumer retail sales in that
period. The Chinese retailers have been able to help consumers feel more comfortable shopping online.
e-commerce transactions between China and other countries increased 32%
to 2.3 trillion yuan ($375.8 billion) in 2012 and accounted for 9.6% of
China's total international trade. In 2013, Alibaba had an e-commerce market share of 80% in China.
In 2014, there were 600 million Internet users in China (twice as many
as in the US), making it the world's biggest online market. China is also the largest e-commerce market in the world by value of sales, with an estimated US$899 billion in 2016.
Recent research clearly indicates that electronic commerce,
commonly referred to as e-commerce, presently shapes the manner in which
people shop for products. The GCC countries have a rapidly growing
market and are characterized by a population that becomes wealthier
(Yuldashev). As such, retailers have launched Arabic-language websites
as a means to target this population. Secondly, there are predictions of
increased mobile purchases and an expanding internet audience
(Yuldashev). The growth and development of the two aspects make the GCC
countries to become larger players in the electronic commerce market
with time progress. Specifically, research shows that e-commerce market
is expected to grow to over $20 billion by the year 2020 among these GCC
countries (Yuldashev). The e-commerce market has also gained much
popularity among the western countries, and in particular Europe and the
U.S. These countries have been highly characterized with
consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) (Geisler, 34). However, trends show that
there are future signs of a reverse. Similar to the GCC countries, there
has been increased purchase of goods and services in online channels
rather than offline channels. Activist investors are trying hard to
consolidate and slash their overall cost and the governments in western
countries continue to impose more regulation on CPG manufacturers
(Geisler, 36). In these senses, CPG investors are being forced to adapt
e-commerce as it is effective as a well as a means for them to thrive.
In 2013, Brazil's e-commerce was growing quickly with retail
e-commerce sales expected to grow at a double-digit pace through 2014.
By 2016, eMarketer expected retail e-commerce sales in Brazil to reach
$17.3 billion. India has an Internet user base of about 460 million as of December 2017.
Despite being third largest user base in world, the penetration of
Internet is low compared to markets like the United States, United
Kingdom or France but is growing at a much faster rate, adding around 6
million new entrants every month. In India, cash on delivery is the most preferred payment method, accumulating 75% of the e-retail activities. The India retail market is expected to rise from 2.5% in 2016 to 5% in 2020.
The future trends in the GCC countries will be similar with that
of the western countries. Despite the forces that push business to adapt
e-commerce as a means to sell goods and products, the manner in which
customers make purchases is similar in countries from these two regions.
For instance, there has been an increased usage of smartphones which
comes in conjunction with an increase in the overall internet audience
from the regions. Yuldashev writes that consumers are scaling up to more
modern technology that allows for mobile marketing.
However, the percentage of smartphone and internet users who make online
purchases is expected to vary in the first few years. It will be
independent on the willingness of the people to adopt this new trend
(The Statistics Portal). For example, UAE has the greatest smartphone
penetration of 73.8 percent and has 91.9 percent of its population has
access to the internet. On the other hand, smartphone penetration in
Europe has been reported to be at 64.7 percent (The Statistics Portal).
Regardless, the disparity in percentage between these regions is
expected to level out in future because e-commerce technology is
expected to grow allowing for more users.
The e-commerce business within these two regions will result in a
competition. Government bodies at country level will enhance their
measures and strategies to ensure sustainability and consumer protection
(Krings, et al.). These increased measures will raise the environmental
and social standards in the countries, factors that will determine the
success of e-commerce market in these countries. For example, an
adoption of tough sanctions will make it difficult for companies to
enter the e-commerce market while lenient sanctions will allow ease of
companies. As such, the future trends between GCC countries and the
Western countries will be independent of these sanctions (Krings, et
al.). These countries need to make rational conclusions in coming up
with effective sanctions.
The rate of growth of the number of internet users in the Arab
countries has been rapid – 13.1% in 2015. A significant portion of the
e-commerce market in the Middle East comprises people in the 30–34 year
age group. Egypt has the largest number of internet users in the region,
followed by Saudi Arabia and Morocco; these constitute 3/4th of the
region's share. Yet, internet penetration is low: 35% in Egypt and 65%
in Saudi Arabia.
E-commerce has become an important tool for small and large
businesses worldwide, not only to sell to customers, but also to engage
them.
In 2012, e-commerce sales topped $1 trillion for the first time in history.
Mobile devices are playing an increasing role in the mix of
e-commerce, this is also commonly called mobile commerce, or m-commerce.
In 2014, one estimate saw purchases made on mobile devices making up
25% of the market by 2017.
For traditional businesses, one research stated that information
technology and cross-border e-commerce is a good opportunity for the
rapid development and growth of enterprises. Many companies have
invested enormous volume of investment in mobile applications. The
DeLone and McLean Model stated that three perspectives contribute to a
successful e-business: information system quality, service quality and
users' satisfaction.
There is no limit of time and space, there are more opportunities to
reach out to customers around the world, and to cut down unnecessary
intermediate links, thereby reducing the cost price, and can benefit
from one on one large customer data analysis,
to achieve a high degree of personal customization strategic plan, in
order to fully enhance the core competitiveness of the products in
company.
Modern 3D graphics technologies, such as Facebook 3D Posts,
are considered by some social media marketers and advertisers as a
preferable way to promote consumer goods than static photos, and some
brands like Sony are already paving the way for augmented reality
commerce. Wayfair now lets you inspect a 3D version of its furniture in a
home setting before buying.
Logistics
Logistics in e-commerce mainly concerns fulfillment. Online markets
and retailers have to find the best possible way to fill orders and
deliver products. Small companies usually control their own logistic
operation because they do not have the ability to hire an outside
company. Most large companies hire a fulfillment service that takes care
of a company's logistic needs.
Store closing flags outside a Toys R Us in New Jersey. Despite investments, the chain struggled to win market share in the age of digital commerce.
E-commerce markets are growing at noticeable rates. The online market
is expected to grow by 56% in 2015–2020. In 2017, retail e-commerce
sales worldwide amounted to 2.3 trillion US dollars and e-retail
revenues are projected to grow to 4.88 trillion US dollars in 2021. Traditional markets are only expected 2% growth during the same time. Brick and mortar
retailers are struggling because of online retailer's ability to offer
lower prices and higher efficiency. Many larger retailers are able to
maintain a presence offline and online by linking physical and online
offerings.
E-commerce allows customers to overcome geographical barriers and
allows them to purchase products anytime and from anywhere. Online and
traditional markets have different strategies for conducting business.
Traditional retailers offer fewer assortment of products because of
shelf space where, online retailers often hold no inventory but send
customer orders directly to the manufacture. The pricing strategies are
also different for traditional and online retailers. Traditional
retailers base their prices on store traffic and the cost to keep
inventory. Online retailers base prices on the speed of delivery.
There are two ways for marketers to conduct business through
e-commerce: fully online or online along with a brick and mortar store.
Online marketers can offer lower prices, greater product selection, and
high efficiency rates. Many customers prefer online markets if the
products can be delivered quickly at relatively low price. However,
online retailers cannot offer the physical experience that traditional
retailers can. It can be difficult to judge the quality of a product
without the physical experience, which may cause customers to experience
product or seller uncertainty. Another issue regarding the online
market is concerns about the security of online transactions. Many
customers remain loyal to well-known retailers because of this issue.
Security is a primary problem for e-commerce in developed and
developing countries. E-commerce security is protecting business'
websites and customers from unauthorized access, use, alteration, or
destruction. The type of threats include: malicious codes, unwanted
programs (ad ware, spyware), phishing, hacking, and cyber vandalism. E-commerce websites use different tools to avert security threats. These tools include firewalls, encryption software, digital certificates, and passwords.
Impact on supply chain management
For a long time, companies had been troubled by the gap between the
benefits which supply chain technology has and the solutions to deliver
those benefits. However, the emergence of e-commerce has provided a more
practical and effective way of delivering the benefits of the new
supply chain technologies.
E-commerce has the capability to integrate all inter-company and
intra-company functions, meaning that the three flows (physical flow,
financial flow and information flow) of the supply chain could be also
affected by e-commerce. The affections on physical flows improved the
way of product and inventory movement level for companies. For the
information flows, e-commerce optimised the capacity of information
processing than companies used to have, and for the financial flows,
e-commerce allows companies to have more efficient payment and
settlement solutions.
In addition, e-commerce has a more sophisticated level of impact
on supply chains: Firstly, the performance gap will be eliminated since
companies can identify gaps between different levels of supply chains by
electronic means of solutions; Secondly, as a result of e-commerce
emergence, new capabilities such implementing ERP systems, like SAP ERP, Xero, or Megaventory,
have helped companies to manage operations with customers and
suppliers. Yet these new capabilities are still not fully exploited.
Thirdly, technology companies would keep investing on new e-commerce
software solutions as they are expecting investment return. Fourthly,
e-commerce would help to solve many aspects of issues that companies may
feel difficult to cope with, such as political barriers or
cross-country changes. Finally, e-commerce provides companies a more
efficient and effective way to collaborate with each other within the
supply chain.
Impact on employment
E-commerce helps create new job opportunities due to information
related services, software app and digital products. It also causes job
losses. The areas with the greatest predicted job-loss are retail,
postal, and travel agencies. The development of e-commerce will create
jobs that require highly skilled workers to manage large amounts of
information, customer demands, and production processes. In contrast,
people with poor technical skills cannot enjoy the wages welfare. On the
other hand, because e-commerce requires sufficient stocks that could be
delivered to customers in time, the warehouse becomes an important
element. Warehouse needs more staff to manage, supervise and organize,
thus the condition of warehouse environment will be concerned by
employees.
Impact on customers
E-commerce brings convenience
for customers as they do not have to leave home and only need to browse
website online, especially for buying the products which are not sold
in nearby shops. It could help customers buy wider range of products and
save customers’ time. Consumers also gain power through online
shopping. They are able to research products and compare prices among
retailers. Also, online shopping often provides sales promotion or
discounts code, thus it is more price effective for customers. Moreover,
e-commerce provides products’ detailed information; even the in-store
staff cannot offer such detailed explanation. Customers can also review
and track the order history online.
E-commerce technologies cut transaction costs by allowing both
manufactures and consumers to skip through the intermediaries. This is
achieved through by extending the search area best price deals and by
group purchase. The success of e-commerce in urban and regional levels
depend on how the local firms and consumers have adopted to e-commerce.
However, e-commerce lacks human interaction for customers,
especially who prefer face-to-face connection. Customers are also
concerned with the security of online transactions and tend to remain
loyal to well-known retailers. In recent years, clothing retailers such as Tommy Hilfiger
have started adding Virtual Fit platforms to their e-commerce sites to
reduce the risk of customers buying the wrong sized clothes, although
these vary greatly in their fit for purpose.
When the customer regret the purchase of a product, it involves
returning goods and refunding process. This process is inconvenient as
customers need to pack and post the goods. If the products are
expensive, large or fragile, it refers to safety issues.
Impact on the environment
In 2018, E-commerce generated 1.3 million tons of container cardboard
in North America, an increase from 1.1 million in 2017. Only 35 percent
of North American cardboard manufacturing capacity is from recycled
content. The recycling rate in Europe is 80 percent and Asia is 93
percent. Amazon, the largest user of boxes,
has a strategy to cut back on packing material and has reduced
packaging material used by 19 percent by weight since 2016. Amazon is
requiring retailers to manufacture their product packaging in a way that
doesn't require additional shipping packaging. Amazon also has an
85-person team researching ways to reduce and improve their packaging
and shipping materials.
Impact on traditional retail
E-commerce has been cited as a major force for the failure of major
U.S. retailers in a trend frequently referred to as a "retail
apocalypse."
The rise of e-commerce outlets like Amazon has made it harder for
traditional retailers to attract customers to their stores and forced
companies to change their sales strategies. Many companies have turned
to sales promotions and increased digital efforts to lure shoppers while
shutting down brick-and-mortar locations. The trend has forced some traditional retailers to shutter its brick and mortar operations.
Distribution channels
E-commerce has grown in importance as companies have adopted pure-click and brick-and-click channel systems. We can distinguish pure-click and brick-and-click channel system adopted by companies.
Pure-click or pure-play companies are those that have launched a website without any previous existence as a firm.
Bricks-and-clicks companies are those existing companies that have added an online site for e-commerce.
Click-to-brick online retailers that later open physical locations to supplement their online efforts.
The contemporary e-commerce trend recommends companies to shift the
traditional business model where focus on "standardized products,
homogeneous market and long product life cycle" to the new business
model where focus on "varied and customized products". E-commerce
requires the company to have the ability to satisfy multiple needs of
different customers and provide them with wider range of products.
With more choices of products, the information of products for
customers to select and meet their needs become crucial. In order to
address the mass customization principle to the company, the use of
recommender system is suggested. This system helps recommend the proper
products to the customers and helps customers make the decision during
the purchasing process. The recommender system could be operated through
the top sellers on the website, the demographics of customers or the
consumers' buying behavior. However, there are 3 main ways of
recommendations: recommending products to customers directly, providing
detailed products' information and showing other buyers' opinions or
critiques. It is benefit for consumer experience without physical
shopping. In general, recommender system is used to contact customers
online and assist finding the right products they want effectively and
directly.
E-commerce during COVID-19
In March 2020, global retail website traffic hit 14.3 billion visits signifying an unprecedented growth of e-commerce during the lockdown of
2020. Studies show that in the US, as many as 29% of surveyed shoppers
state that they will never go back to shopping in person again; in the
UK, 43% of consumers state that they expect to keep on shopping the same
way even after the lockdown is over.
Its usage dates back to the mid-1980s; however, it was popularized in the 1990s by American author David Foster Wallace.
In music
"New Sincerity" was used as a collective name for a loose group of alternative rock bands, centered in Austin, Texas,
in the years from about 1985 to 1990, who were perceived as reacting to
the ironic outlook of then-prominent music movements like punk rock and new wave. The use of "New Sincerity" in connection with these bands began with an off-handed comment by Austin punk rocker/author Jesse Sublett to his friend, local music writer Margaret Moser. According to author Barry Shank, Sublett said: "All those new sincerity bands, they're crap."
Sublett (at his own website) states that he was misquoted, and actually
told Moser, "It's all new sincerity to me ... It's not my cup of tea." In any event, Moser began using the term in print, and it ended up becoming the catch phrase for these bands.
Nationally, the most successful "New Sincerity" band was The Reivers (originally called Zeitgeist), who released four well-received albums between 1985 and 1991. True Believers, led by Alejandro Escovedo and Jon Dee Graham,
also received extensive critical praise and local acclaim in Austin,
but the band had difficulty capturing its live sound on recordings,
among other problems. Other important "New Sincerity" bands included Doctors Mob, Wild Seeds, and Glass Eye. Another significant "New Sincerity" figure was the eccentric, critically acclaimed songwriter Daniel Johnston.
Despite extensive critical attention (including national coverage in Rolling Stone and a 1985 episode of the MTV program The Cutting Edge), none of the "New Sincerity" bands met with much commercial success, and the "scene" ended within a few years.
Critic Jim Collins introduced the concept of "new sincerity" to film
criticism in his 1993 essay titled "Genericity in the 90s: Eclectic
Irony and the New Sincerity". In this essay he contrasts films that
treat genre conventions with "eclectic irony" and those that treat them
seriously, with "new sincerity". Collins describes
the "new sincerity" of films like Field of Dreams (1989), Dances With Wolves (1990), and Hook
(1991), all of which depend not on hybridization, but on an
"ethnographic" rewriting of the classic genre film that serves as their
inspiration, all attempting, using one strategy or another, to recover a
lost "purity", which apparently pre-existed even the Golden Age of film
genre.
In response to the hegemony of metafictional and self-conscious irony in contemporary fiction, writer David Foster Wallace predicted, in his 1993 essay "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction", a new literary movement which would espouse something like the New Sincerity ethos:
The
next real literary "rebels" in this country might well emerge as some
weird bunch of anti-rebels, born oglers who dare somehow to back away
from ironic watching, who have the childish gall actually to endorse and
instantiate single-entendre principles. Who treat of plain old untrendy
human troubles and emotions in U.S. life with reverence and conviction.
Who eschew self-consciousness and hip fatigue. These anti-rebels would
be outdated, of course, before they even started. Dead on the page. Too
sincere. Clearly repressed. Backward, quaint, naive, anachronistic.
Maybe that'll be the point. Maybe that's why they'll be the next real
rebels. Real rebels, as far as I can see, risk disapproval. The old
postmodern insurgents risked the gasp and squeal: shock, disgust,
outrage, censorship, accusations of socialism, anarchism, nihilism.
Today's risks are different. The new rebels might be artists willing to
risk the yawn, the rolled eyes, the cool smile, the nudged ribs, the
parody of gifted ironists, the "Oh how banal". To risk accusations of
sentimentality, melodrama. Of overcredulity. Of softness. Of willingness
to be suckered by a world of lurkers and starers who fear gaze and
ridicule above imprisonment without law. Who knows.
This was further examined on the blog Fiction Advocate by Mike Moats:
The theory is this: Infinite Jest
is Wallace's attempt to both manifest and dramatize a revolutionary
fiction style that he called for in his essay "E Unibus Pluram:
Television and U.S. Fiction." The style is one in which a new sincerity
will overturn the ironic detachment that hollowed out contemporary
fiction towards the end of the 20th century. Wallace was trying to write
an antidote to the cynicism that had pervaded and saddened so much of
American culture in his lifetime. He was trying to create an
entertainment that would get us talking again.
In his 2010 essay "David Foster Wallace and the New Sincerity in
American Fiction", Adam Kelly argues that Wallace's fiction, and that of
his generation, is marked by a revival and theoretical reconception of
sincerity, challenging the emphasis on authenticity that dominated
twentieth-century literature and conceptions of the self. Additionally, numerous authors have been described as contributors to the New Sincerity movement, including Jonathan Franzen, Zadie Smith, Dave Eggers, Stephen Graham Jones, and Michael Chabon.
"The New Sincerity" has been espoused since 2002 by radio host Jesse Thorn of PRI's The Sound of Young America (now Bullseye),
self-described as "the public radio program about things that are
awesome". Thorn characterizes New Sincerity as a cultural movement
defined by dicta including "Maximum Fun" and "Be More Awesome". It
celebrates outsized celebration of joy, and rejects irony, and
particularly ironic appreciation of cultural products. Thorn has
promoted this concept on his program and in interviews
to the point that a scholarly work on Russian post-Soviet aesthetic
theory included mention of Thorn as American popularizer of the term
"new sincerity". A typical explication of Thorn's concept is this 2006 "Manifesto for the New Sincerity":
What is The New Sincerity? Think of it as irony and sincerity combined like Voltron,
to form a new movement of astonishing power. Or think of it as the
absence of irony and sincerity, where less is (obviously) more. If those
strain the brain, just think of Evel Knievel.
Let's be frank. There's no way to appreciate Evel Knievel literally.
Evel is the kind of man who defies even fiction, because the reality is
too over the top. Here is a man in a red-white-and-blue leather
jumpsuit, driving some kind of rocket car. A man who achieved fame and
fortune jumping over things. Here is a real man who feels at home as Spidey
on the cover of a comic book. Simply put, Evel Knievel boggles the
mind. But by the same token, he isn't to be taken ironically, either.
The fact of the matter is that Evel is, in a word, awesome. ... Our
greeting: a double thumbs-up. Our credo: "Be More Awesome". Our
lifestyle: "Maximum Fun". Throw caution to the wind, friend, and live
The New Sincerity.
In a September 2009 interview, Thorn commented that "new sincerity"
had begun as "a silly, philosophical movement that me and some friends
made up in college" and that "everything that we said was a joke, but at
the same time it wasn't all a joke in the sense that we weren't being
arch or we weren't being campy. While we were talking about ridiculous,
funny things we were sincere about them."
Thorn's concept of "new sincerity" as a social response has
gained popularity since his introduction of the term in 2002. Several
point to the September 11, 2001, attacks
and the subsequent wake of events that created this movement, in which
there was a drastic shift in tone. The 1990s were considered a period of
artistic works ripe with irony, and the attacks shocked a change in the
American culture. Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair, published an editorial a few weeks after the attacks claiming that "this was the end of the age of irony". Jonathan D. Fitzgerald for The Atlantic suggests this new movement could also be attributed to broader periodic shifts that occur in culture.
As a result of this movement, several cultural works, including
many identified above, were considered elements of "new sincerity",
but this was also seen to be a mannerism adopted by the general public,
to show appreciation for cultural works that they happened to enjoy.
Andrew Watercutter of Wired saw this as having being able to enjoy one's guilty pleasures without having to feel guilty about enjoying it, and being able to share that appreciation with others. One such example of a "new sincerity" movement is the brony fandom, generally adult and primarily male fans of the 2010 animated show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic which is produced by Hasbro
to sell its toys to young girls. These fans have been called "internet
neo-sincerity at its best", unabashedly enjoying the show and
challenging the preconceived gender roles that such a show ordinarily
carries.
Regional variants
Russia
In Russia, the term new sincerity (novaya iskrennost) was used as early as the mid-1980s or early 1990s by dissident poet Dmitry Prigov and critic Mikhail Epstein, as a response to the dominant sense of absurdity in late Soviet and post-Soviet culture.
In Epstein's words, "Postconceptualism, or the New Sincerity, is an
experiment in resuscitating "fallen", dead languages with a renewed
pathos of love, sentimentality and enthusiasm.
This conception of "new sincerity" meant the avoidance of cynicism, but not necessarily of irony. In the words of Alexei Yurchak of the University of California, Berkeley,
it "is a particular brand of irony, which is sympathetic and warm, and
allows its authors to remain committed to the ideals that they discuss,
while also being somewhat ironic about this commitment".
Nowadays New Sincerity is being contraposed not to Soviet literature, but to postmodernism. Dmitry Vodennikov has been acclaimed as the leader of the new wave of Russian New Sincerity, as was Victor Pelevin.
In American poetry
Since 2005, poets including Reb Livingston, Joseph Massey, Andrew Mister, and Anthony Robinson have collaborated in a blog-driven
poetry movement, described by Massey as "a 'new sincerity' brewing in
American poetry – a contrast to the cold, irony-laden poetry dominating
the journals and magazines and new books of poetry". Other poets named as associated with this movement, or its tenets, have included David Berman, Catherine Wagner, Dean Young, Matt Hart, Miranda July (who is also a filmmaker herself), Tao Lin, Steve Roggenbuck, D. S. Chapman, Frederick Seidel, Arielle Greenberg, Karyna McGlynn, and Mira Gonzalez.