Tuesday, June 16, 2009

History and Evolution of E-commerce


What is e-commerce?

It is know as the process of conducting financial transaction electronically such as e-payment. For example Public Bank, provides e-payment services in their website. Users who wish to make payment to any individual or business sector may visit the website. Due to the success of e- commerce it is well know for shopping online on the World Wide Web. Users may shop online without visiting the shopping mall. EBay and Amazon.com are examples of online shopping that display many goods such as books, accessories, headphones and many more.

E- Commerce can be for business to business (B to B) or business to consumer (B to C). Besides conducting financial transaction over the internet electronically, e- commerce is also know for selling product and services over the internet. Over the years there has been an increase in e-commerce sales.


E-commerce’s History.

During those days, e-commerce is known as the process that executes commercial transactions electronically using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer. Using these leading technologies has opened the door for users to exchange business information and do electronic transaction. EDI and EFT was developed and introduce in the late 1970’s.

From that point, the internet started to develop and to become popular among the users in 1994. Even though there is an increase in the popularity, it took around four years to develop the security protocol (HTTP and DSL) that allows rapid access and consistent connection to the internet.


Evolution of E-commerce

Through out the years e-commerce industry has grown to be the multi billion industry. Let’s have a look at the table below to have a clearer picture on the evolution of e-commerce.

Year --------- Event


1984----EDI, or also known as electronic data interchange, was standardized using ASC X12. This guaranteed that companies would be able to complete any transactions with one another reliably.EDI is actually a strict formatted message that focuses on document other than monetary instrument. For example,message is sent by buyer to seller. The buyer may sent message to the supplier to request for purchase order, advise on the payment for good and any other related matters.


1992----Online retail products to its customers was introduced by CompuServe. This gives people the first chance to buy things off their computer.For example like books,computer devices any many more. Due to advance in technology, user now may visit CompuServe website to purchase any good or services based on their preference.www.cs.com/


1994----Then a browser called Netscape is introduced.It provides people with a simple browser in order to surf the internet and a safe online transaction technology which is called Secure Sockets Layer. As time goes on, Netscape now has launched Netscape 6,Netscape 7,and Netscape Browser 8. On May 2007 Netscape Navigator will be named Netscape Navigator 9.Users of this browser may visit browser.netscape.com/ whereby it is the official site of the web that provides dowloads and other technical information.


1995----The founding father of e-commerce was launched : Amazon.com and eBay.com. Basicly,this two website has developed over the years and it provides various type of services such as selling books online, club and fitness item, clothing and many more.This allows user to shop online without making the effort to visit the shopping complex or warehouse.


1998----DSL, or Digital Subscriber Line, provides fast, and continous Internet service to subscribers across California. Later DSL started to expand its service through out the world whereby it allows high band width data to be transport. High band width data are like video,pictures and multimedia. This leads people to spend more time, and money, online.


1999----According to Business.com retail spending over the internet reaches $20billion.


2000----Until 2005 the U.S government has extended the moratorium on the Internet


E-commerce model.

Through the internet users are allowed to buy good and services online by comparing the prices and other features that is advertise by a particular company. Besides that, users who wish to purchase online tickets can do so by just visiting the airline website. The users just need to fill up the necessary particulars and purchase their ticket online. Air Asia is one of the airline companies in Malaysia that provide this service in their website. Moreover for those who love reading business magazine,
Time.com is selling their magazine through this website. They allow user to purchase the issue by offering four free issues.



References :
http://newmedia.medill.northwestern.edu/courses/nmpspring01/brown/Revstream/models.htm
http://www.ecommerce-land.com/history_ecommerce.html
http://communication.howstuffworks.com/history-e-commerce2.htm



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