The history and evolution of E-commerce

Before the internet was booming, commerce of a company was carried out face-to-face. But nowadays, electronic commerce, also known as e-commerce, assisting many organizations operate business that provide speed and convenient. On the other hand, customers make purchase over electronic signals, usually through the Internet. In another word, if a customer interested a product on a web site, they can buy it over the web. It is more convenient for customers to compare and find a best price on goods and also it gives customers the opportunity to purchase special items they could not find. So how an e-commerce became part of a way of our life?

When the e-commerce started, the organizations were using phone commerce; fax commerce and follow by internet commerce. Actually e-commerce was started during the 1960s with the earliest example electronic funds transfer (EFT), which allows organizations to transfer funds between one another electronically. Then another technology electronic interchange (EDI) was introduced. During the 1990s, the internet was opened for commercial use. It was the period that World Wide Web (WWW) begins, and the trend of rapid personal computer (PCs) usage growth. Due to the rapid expansion of the WWW network, e-commerce software and the peer business competitions, large number of dot-com and Internet starts-ups appeared. These three important factors made e-commerce possible and successful in 1991s.

However, in the beginning of 1994s, Netscape with its point-and-click Web browser that provided the users a simple browser to surf the Internet and a safe online transaction technology called Secure Sockets Layer and two of the biggest names in e-commerce, eBay and Amazon.com are launched in 1995s. During 1998s, DSL, or Digital Subscriber Line, provides fast, always-on Internet service to subscribers across California. This prompts people to spend more time, and money, online.

People start to define the term of e-commerce as the process of purchasing goods and services over the Internet using secure connections and electronic payment services during 2000s when a large number of business companies in the United States and Western Europe represented their services in the World Wide Web. Although the dot-com collapse in 2000s results many of e-commerce companies disappeared, the “brick and mortar” retailers recognized the advantages of electronic commerce and began to add such capabilities to their web sites.

Nowadays, e-commerce became popular to everyone. You will not be limited by size, scale, customizability, currency or even language when doing business over the World Wide Web. Likewise, you can easily shopping via internet without having to go out.