- The HISTORY and EVOLUTION of E-commerce -

The History and Evolution of E-Commerce~
E-commerce, also known as Electronic Commerce which refers doing business online that consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks (typically via the Web). It is also called "e-business," "e-tailing" and "I-commerce." Although in most cases e-commerce and e-business are synonymous, yet e-commerce implies that goods and services can be purchased online, whereas e-business might be used as more of an umbrella term for a total presence on the Web, which would naturally include the e-commerce (shopping) component. In fact, business is done electronically and there is no longer a need for physical currency or goods to conduct business.

Anyhow, before the invention of e-commerce, there are definitely a story behind which is the history of this vast improving system-Information technology that has transformed business processes into how it is today. At first, the term "e-commerce" meant the process of execution of commercial transactions electronically, using technologies such as:

(i)Electronic Data Interchange (EDI);and










(ii)Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).








This were how business companies and organization have the opportunity to exchange business information and do transactions electronically. In fact, the ability to use these technologies appeared in the late 1970s. Besides, the invention of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were also forms of e-commerce. From the 1990s onwards, e-commerce would additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing.

During 1994s e-commerce started to become popular. It took almost four years to develop the security protocols (HTTP) and Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) which allowed rapid access and a persistent connection to the Internet. Another major improvement in e-commerce came with the development of Linux a platform more reliable and open source that allowed itself to be customized by its users and put a tough competition to Microsoft that compelled it develop much better versions of networking.

In 2000s, the meaning of the word e-commerce has gradually changed. People began to define the term "e-commerce" as the process of purchasing goods and services over the Internet using secure connections and electronic payment services eventhough the dot-com collapse in 2000s and led to unfortunate results. In fact, "Brick and mortar" retailers recognize the advantages of electronic commerce and started to add such capabilities to their websites. At the end of 2001s, the largest form of e-commerce, Business-to-Business (B2B) model, had around $700 billion in transactions.

History of e-commerce is unthinkable without Amazon and Ebay which were among the first Internet companies to allow electronic transactions. In 2003s. Amazon.com, Inc has made its first annual profit which was the first step to the further development. Currently there are 5 largest and most famous worldwide Internet retailers: Amazon, Dell, Staples, Office Depot and Hewlett Packard. According to statistics, the most popular categories of products sold in the World Wide Web are music, books, computers, office supplies and other consumer electronics.

One more company which has contributed much to the process of ecommerce development is Dell Inc., which stands third in computer sales within the industries. In 2007s, Fortune magazine ranked Dell as the 34th-largest company in the Fortune 500 list and 8th on its annual Top 20 list of the most successful and admired companies in the USA in recognition of the company’s business model.

In conclusion, perhaps it is obvious that the evolution of e-commerce is where the internet and electronic data exchanges are steadily becoming valuable tools,eventhough the process was quite bump in the period of (1994~2004). Uncontradictable, e-commerce has become the most important facets of the Internet that have emerged in the recent times. Probably e-commerce itself is still fragile and unmature yet, but by the will of everyone and building it bricks by bricks, i strongly believe that we could definitely gain improvement and lay a more secure foudation for the future generation.


Reference and Related links:
Kenneth C. Laudon, Carol G. Traver (2008). E-Commerce: Business, Technology, Society, Second Edition (Hardcover).

sergiu23 (2008). Electronic Commerce Aka E-commerce History. from http://www.ecommerce-journal.com/articles/electronic_commerce_aka_e_commerce_history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-commerce

posted by ttR