History and Evolution of E-Commerce

E-Commerce was birth out from the World-Wide-Web (WWW). The first extended use of a form of electronic commerce appeared in the early 1970s, when system called Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) was introduced. This enabled banks and financial institutions to transfer over secure networks large amounts of money either among themselves or with associated businesses.

In the late of 1970s, the introduction of the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) made it possible for companies to interface and trade without any human contact and it enables inter-company exchanges of documents, such as order forms for suppliers, invoices, customs forms, reimbursement receipts, stock inventories and etc.

In the late 1980s, the new type of applications which is electronic mail (e-mail) was widely adopted in the business world. When it was first introduced, this system was considered a major breakthrough.

In year 1992, The National Science Foundation lifted restrictions on the Internet allowing commercial use. CompuServe offers online retail products to its customers. This gives people the first chance to buy things off their computer.

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

In year 1995, two of the biggest names in e-commerce are launched which is EBay and Amazon.com. Generally, B2C websites are the bridge that link customers to suppliers such as EBay, online auction. Beside that, the B2C concerns itself with selling to the end user such as Amazon, online book retailers. On the other hand, the e-commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as B2B such as Microsoft sell his software to other organization.

In the very beginning, many people will have doubt on e-commerce but now it is become a modern tool, not only e-commerce revolutionized the world of wholesale, but also retail. As a result of that, the businesses are now continually searching for new ways to meet the needs of the online market such as Wal-Mart, they target on integrating consumer relationship with e-commerce industry to increases their customer base.

The technology used for e-commerce is young, but it's expanding faster than any before it and will soon be the most advanced system the world has ever seen and e-commerce is still one of the leading forces of economic growth today.