Since it first evolved over 30 years ago, the web has grown into the world’s biggest and most important resource and has revolutionized how (and where) companies now do business. What started as a small collection of basic, type-based pages has transformed into one of the most significant tools in both our business and social lives, and today, the web drives everything from how we communicate to how we shop and watch media.

Where once companies were largely limited to their local markets, with the internet, they now have access to a global community and can work remotely with clients all over the world. In that short 30-year span, the internet has revolutionized modern commerce, and continues to have an increasing influence with each passing year.

Some Of The More Influential Ways The Internet Has Changed Business

All firms are unique and the way you use the web will likely be very different when compared to another company. Nonetheless, some of the more important developments over the lifespan of the internet have been game-changers, pretty much across the board.

The Humble Email: It can often be easy to overlook just how much email changed the business landscape but just try to imagine a day at work now without it. In 1999, Bill Gates famously once wrote an (at the time) almost prescient book called Business at the Speed of Thought, and email is a pretty good example of exactly that.

The Stunning Rise Of E-Commerce And Online Shopping: Just last decade, e-commerce was still on the fringes of most businesses, accounting for only a small percentage of sales. However, fast-forward to today and the vast majority of people now buy at least some items online. Also, through the lockdowns imposed by the recent Coronavirus, the online shopping sector witnessed tremendous growth as customers moved in their droves to web platforms for everything from grocery shopping to much more expensive items like cars and even houses. Indeed, conservative estimates suggest the COVID pandemic accelerated the take-up of online shopping by as much as four to six years. Nowadays, there is a huge range of e-com-enabled websites dedicated to an equally huge range of diverse products and services – everything from behemoth sites, like Amazon, to more specialist websites, like medical-supermarket.com. Even just simple brochure sites have helped increase company visibility and helped promote businesses to a wider community.

The Massive Benefits Brought By Firms Working In The Cloud: Over the last decade or so, one particular aspect of online services has become one of the fastest-growing markets in the entire IT and web industry – namely, cloud computing. Working in the cloud gives firms tremendous benefits over using traditional, in-house networks and can transform a company’s procedures (and its finances) overnight. The benefits of the cloud are too lengthy to list here but almost all businesses that migrate to cloud networking report having a lower IT overhead, access to the best and fastest tech available (stuff they likely couldn’t afford on their own), better options for remote working, improved customer support 24/7/365, and massively increased online security.