The latest generation of e-commerce, 3.0, is "slowly emerging" but it is still unclear what form it will take.

That's according to Tim Weber, the business editor of BBC News, who also explained what the previous generations of e-commerce looked like.

"E-commerce 1.0 was all about discovering the web and setting up the first online shops... Version 2.0 saw these websites transformed into clever multimedia portals that tried to engage users," he revealed on BBC News. "Now e-commerce 3.0 is slowly emerging - except nobody is quite sure yet what it will look like."

Whilst attending the Digital - Life - Design conference in Munich (an innovative digital media event, Dld-conference.com revealed), Weber garnered some idea of what might be big factors in the upcoming reincarnation of e-commerce.

He suggested that the rise in social media usage could change the face of e-commerce; as long as companies take advantage of the engagement opportunities websites like Twitter or Facebook provide.

Sonali de Rycker, an e-commerce specialist, revealed that 80 per cent of shoppers consult reviews of products from their peers prior to making a purchase. For retailers this means paying as much attention to their social media accounts as they would their website hosting, payment platforms or any other important factor in their operations.

E-commerce 3.0 will also be affected by the relationship between online shopping and mobile devices, Weber added. In fact, Ms de Rycker also added that as the relationship between mobile and retail is so established, that it will "drive a whole new customer behaviour".

Weber concluded by revealing that the companies who take notice of these potential factors, as well as interpreting any data they receive from said platforms effectively, would prove to be the "big winners" of e-commerce 3.0.