e-WorLDBiZ

What is E-commerce?

E-commerce is a term for any type of business, or commercial transaction, that involves the transfer of information across the Internet. It covers a range of different types of businesses, from consumer based retail sites, through auction or music sites, to business exchanges trading goods and services between corporations. It is currently one of the most important aspects of the Internet to emerge.

E-commerce allows consumers to electronically exchange goods and services with no barriers of time or distance. Electronic commerce has expanded rapidly over the past five years and is predicted to continue at this rate, or even accelerate. In the near future the boundaries between "conventional" and "electronic" commerce will become increasingly blurred as more and more businesses move sections of their operations onto the Internet.

The History and Evolution of E-commerce

Over the past 12 years, the Internet has changed the way we buy and sell goods and services. Do you remember buying airline tickets before the Internet? Or can you imagine buying a new computer or car without doing hours of Web research? The history of E-commerce is a history of how Information Technology has transformed business processes. It basically started in the 1970s.

In 1970s

A form of electronic commerce appeared that is called Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT). This form was used by employers to pay their employees by transferring the money directly to their personal bank accounts. After that, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was introduced. EDI was the way that businesses could share information electronically with each other.

In 1984s

Due to the different EDI formats that company unable to interact with each other, EDI was standardized through ASC X12 that was developed by American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ASC X12 is a universal standard that enable company to complete the electronic transactions stably and reliably. It is designed for sharing business documents and information electronically.

In 1992s

Mosaic web-browser was made available, it was the first ‘point and click’ browser and it was quickly adapted into a downloadable browser, Netscape, which allowed easier access to E-commerce. It provides the users a simple browser to surf the Internet and a safe online transaction technology known as Secure Sockets Layer.

In 1995s

The two biggest companies in e-commerce are launched-- Amazon and E-bay. These companies revolutionized the Internet, as well as the way we buy things. Both companies paved the way for today's e-commerce merchant.

In 1998s

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) was developed. It was allowed quicker access and a persistent connection to the Internet. This has encouraged people to spend more time and money online. The development of Red Hat Linux was also another major step in electronic commerce growth. Linux gave users another choice in a platform other then Windows.

In 2000s

AOL (known as online software suite) and Napster were also the major development of the E-commerce. AOL and Time Warner merge and they push for the E-commerce. At that time, many people start to make transaction through E-commerce. It is because more convenient as the users’ only need to sit at home and all the transaction can be done.

Nowadays

The largest E-commerce is Business to Business (B2Ba). This form of E-commerce had around $700 billion transactions in 2001 by selling their goods to other businesses. Furthermore, the other forms of E-commerce which are growing include Consumer to Consumer (C2C) and Peer to Peer (P2P). At this time the meaning of the word E-commerce was changed. People began to define the term E-commerce as the process of purchasing of available goods and services over the Internet using secure connections and electronic payment services. In future, there will be more and more people and organization using E-commerce as technology becomes more advance.

References:

http://ecommerce.networksolutions.com/ecommerce_what_is_ecommerce.asp
http://newmedia.medill.northwestern.edu/courses/nmpspring01/brown/Revstream/history.htm

http://www.flysyk02.netfirms.com/Ecommerce/History.htm