The history and evolution of E-commerce

Nowadays, internet has changed the way that we buying and selling goods or services. We can make business transactions online on such a regular basic such as online banking and online booking for hotel rooms as well. This action of buying and selling goods or services through the internet is called “E-commerce”. E-commerce is not just about buying and selling, it is also about electronically collaborating, communicating, and discovering information which sometimes also referred as e-business. It is about e-learning, e-government, social networks and others else.

In the early 1970s, development of e-commerce applications set up with electronic funds transfer (EFT) which transfers of funds between accounts by electronic such as Automatic Teller Machines (ATM). Electronic data interchange (EDI) was developed in the late of 1970s to improve the limitation of EFT. It is a set of standards developed in the 1960’s to exchange business information and do electronic transactions.

When the United States government allowed public to access to the internet in 1991, there was a significant change for e-commerce. Online retail products were offers by CompuServe to its consumer and this gives people the first opportunity to buy things online. E-commerce started to become famous during 1994 and it took four years for it to build the security protocols and DSL which permit rapid access and connection to the internet.

E-commerce shifted from business-to-consumer to business-to-business in 1999 and change from business-to-business to business-to-exchange in 2001. The 5 largest and most popular world wide internet retailers are Amazon, Dell, Staples, Office Depot and Hewlett Packard. E-commerce is one of the leading forces of economic growth today. It bring many benefits to users, suppliers and consumers such as saving costs and times but it may also bring some limitations such as security and lack of trust. E-commerce still has a bright future and has the ability to change.

The summary of evolution e-commerce:

1984
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was standardized through ASC X12 and it is guaranteed that companies would be able to complete transactions with one another reliability.

1990
The first web browser, World Wide Web (WWW) was written by Tim Berners-Lee by using a NeXT computer.

1992
An online retail product was offers by CompuServe to its customers. This gives people the first opportunity to buy things using their computer.

1994
Netscape arrived and providing users a simple browser to surf the Internet and a safe online transaction technology called Secure Sockets Layer.

1995
Amazon.com and eBay.com which are the two biggest names in e-commerce are being launched.

1998
The Digital Subscriber line (DSL) provides faster and always-on Internet service to subscriber across California. This prompts people to spend more money and time.

1999
According to Business.com, retail spending over the Internet reaches $20 billion.

2000
The dot-com bust.

2003
Amazon had its first year with a full year of profit.