The History and Evolution of E-commerce

The meaning of E-commerce or electronic commerce was founded late in the 1970’s. Basically, E-commerce meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). Electronic Data Interchange such as company data transfers and bank document transfers. For Electronic Funds Transfer such as fund codes transfers, purchase orders, bill and invoices. E-commerce is a revolution for the online industry. The development of E-commerce was one of those things that happened slowly and then suddenly. The term refers simply to any commerce that takes place electronically. This includes credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s was also forms of electronic commerce. It was during this time that people started to use credit cards on a regular basis and that set the foundation for electronic commerce to get a toehold in society. The earliest example of many-to-many electronic commerce in physical goods was the Boston Computer Exchange, a marketplace for used computer launched in 1982.

A significant change for E-commerce occurred in 1991, when the Unites States government allowed public access to the internet. As a potential commercial system, the internet turned out to have several advantages over its competitors. It was a truly global network. This opened the possibility of accessing vast new markets for every business conceivable. The internet did not have compatibility problem. Even if there are virtually no information standards for the internet, the transfer control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) is the generally accepted standard protocol. Once opened for commercial utilization, the internet was quickly accepted in business. Internet-related business thrived, the market itself expanded, followed soon by a boom of the operation infrastructure. The wed is a more affordable means of conducting E-commerce than the EDI had even been. It enables a wide range of commercial activities. Intuitive and trouble- free, online navigation makes the Wed a comfortable means of accessing information. The popular of the web has a major impact on other technologies of electronic commerce. Furthermore, the EDI standard groups are trying to simplify the transactions between business partners and to introduce real-time EDI. A common way of integrating EDI with the Web is the posting of a product catalogue on the Web, while the actual transaction is run by a back EDI system.

References:

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-commercer
- http://www.jpservicez-searcharticles.com/article.detail
- http://www.normwilcox.com/18/the-history-of-ecommerce/
Php/236839/13/Internet/116/Ecommerce/The_History_of_E-commerce
http://ict.cdimm.org/man/engleza/ecomm03.pdf

prepared by : Koh Kah Wang