Monday, June 15, 2009

The History and Evolution of E-Commerce

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. Nowadays, e-commerce is getting popular and it has become an important part of our life. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily since the spread of the Internet.

The meaning of electronic commerce has changed over the last 30 years. Originally, electronic commerce meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). However, in the 1980s, the growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking were also forms of electronic commerce. From the 1990s onwards, electronic commerce would additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing.

The development of EDI is believed to be a crucial phase so far as History of E-Commerce is concerned. EDI was invented in the 1960's and provided with a “set of standards” that enabled the big business firms to indulge in a sort of beneficial electronic transaction. It also facilitated the interchange of vital business oriented information.

The next important phase in the History of E-Commerce was the development of Mosaic web-browser in 1992. This web browser was soon given the form of a browser which could be downloaded and was named as Netscape. This further broadened the scope and possibility of electronic commercial transaction.

The development and adaptation of DSL and Red Hat Linux respectively, again benefited the process of online business transaction. The year, 2000, saw a major merger between AOL and Time Warner which marked another important step towards the development of E-Commerce. This merger proved to be very economically beneficial.

Electronic commerce is unthinkable without Amazon and Ebay which were among the first Internet companies to allow electronic transactions. Thanks to their founders we now have a handsome ecommerce sector and enjoy the buying and selling advantages of the Internet.

On the consumer level, electronic commerce is mostly conducted on the World Wide Web. An individual can go online to purchase anything from books, grocery to expensive items like real estate. On the other hand, on the institutional level, big corporations and financial institutions use the internet to exchange financial data to facilitate domestic and international business. The worldwide popularity of Internet has resulted in the stable development and overwhelming acceptance of E-Commerce.

E-Commerce provides with a rich online transaction experience. History of ecommerce is a history of a new, virtual world which is evolving according to the customer advantage. It is a world which we are all building together brick by brick, laying a secure foundation for the future generations.

Related Links:
http://resources.alibaba.com/topic/43711/Evolution_of_E_Commerce.htm
http://www.ecommerce-land.com/history_ecommerce.html

3 comments:

  1. E-commerce has really helped us a lot in life...

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  2. Its nice articles, Now days Ecommerce is the best way to selling a products in online. And its one of the best and low cost mediums to reach out to new markets. Thanks for your wonderful sharing

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  3. information is clearly and easy to understand... what a pretty good job.. buck it up frenzz.

    ReplyDelete

 

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