B-toB commerce predicted to reach $6.3 trillion in 2005

Jupiter Research has released a study with pulse-quickening projections about the growth of the business-to-business commerce market. Jupiter's prediction that B-to-B commerce will expand from $336 million this year to $6.3 trillion in 2005 is likely to raise the heart rate of even the most composed IT administrators as they try to figure out how to accommodate such exponential expansion.

What makes the next generation of E-commerce so different is the connection of entire supply chains to the same network, according to the U.S. Business-to-Business Trade Projections study. "If you thought you had big integration problems before, now you've got to integrate companies within your firewall," said Jupiter Research VP John Katsaros.

The degree to which business-toconsumer transactions have moved online will pale in comparison to the number of transactions that include companies and their partners, suppliers, and customers, Katsaros said.

While 15% to 20% of business-to consumer transactions have gone online, 80% of business-to-business transactions will be conducted online in six to eight years, he added.

Jupiter found that the computer and telecommunications markets should become the largest online Bto-B market in terms of sales, topping $1 trillion by 2005.

Four other industries-food and beverage, motor vehicle and parts, industrial equipment and supplies, and construction and real estateare expected to exceed $500 billion within five years.