E-Commerce?!

Hey, do you know what E-Commerce is? I guess some of you might say yes and some might say no, but it is just ok if you know any about e-commerce and also even you do not know any about it. Today I want to share with you all something about what e-commerce is, and also the history and evolution of it. It might be not an interesting story, but, please be patient and follow me to step in depth into e-commerce world and learn more about it!

What is E-Commerce?

E-commerce, a new path of business model superior in terms of efficiency, productivity, profitability and competitiveness which available to all sizes of business and also known as Electronic Commerce in full term. It is generally the “in” thing today which conducts real time business transactions in a “borderless world” 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for example, Amazon.com, AirAsia.com etc.

It is electronic trading which commonly involved the process of marketing, buying, selling or exchanging products, services and information through the Internet via the computer between parties to transact business. The parties involved in e-commerce can be individuals, organizations or both by using international networked computers to do electronic transactions which involve the transfer of ownership or rights to use a good or service or to create and transform business relationships.

Apart from that, e-commerce also used to transfer and share information within organizations through Intranets in order to improve decision making process without wasting money, time and effort. The new pattern of e-commerce nowadays is not just concerned on transactions but also on building new relationships, sustaining and improving relationships, both existing and potential to the business and also extensions of networks and webs of activities.

The four common categories of e-commerce are Business-To-Business (B2B), Business-To-Consumer (B2C), and Business-To-Government (B2G) and Business-To-Employees (B2E).

The History and Evolution of…

All commerce was carried out face-to-face or via the mails before e-commerce appears to be common. E-commerce began a time before personal computers were common and has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. Now, just let me give you a brief picture about the history and evolution of e-commerce.

In the early of 1970s, e-commerce applications were first developed with innovation such as EFT, or electronic funds transfer which funds could be routed electronically from one organization to another. However, the extent of the applications was limited to large corporations, financial institutions, and some other daring businesses.

In 1984, electronic data interchange (EDI), a technology used to transfer routine documents electronically which expanded electronic transfers from financial transactions to other types of transaction processing such as ordering. EDI has enlarged the pool of participating companies from financial institutions to manufacturers, services and variety of businesses. At the same time, EDI was standardized through ASC X12 and this guaranteed that companies would be able to complete transactions with one another reliably. Then, more electronic commerce applications followed, ranging from travel reservation systems such as American Airlines to stock trading. Such systems were called interorganisational system (IOS) applications, and their strategic value to businesses has been widely recognized.

In the early 1990s, Internet has been commercialized and users began to participate in the World Wide Web (WWW) and electronic commerce applications start rapidly expanded. In the year of 1992, CompuServe offers online retail products to its customers and this gives people the first chance to buy things off their computer. Netscape arrived at 1994 and providing Internet users a simple browser to surf the Internet and a safe online transaction technology called Secure Sockets Layer. Internet users have observed the development of many innovative applications ranging from online direct selling to e-learning since 1995 and two of the biggest names in e-commerce are launched at the year, that are Amazon.com and eBay.com.

In 1998, DSL, or Digital Subscriber Line provides fast and always-on Internet service to subscribers across California, USA. This prompts people to spend more time and money to go online. The emphasis of e-commerce shifted from B2C to B2B in 1999 and from B2B to B2E, collaborative commerce (c-commerce), e-government, e-learning, and mobile commerce (m-commerce) in 2001.

With the more and more competitive global market currently, it is extremely important for businesses to embrace the latest methods and trends to conduct their businesses. With the advancement of technology, especially the Internet, e-commerce has become common and widely spread in business world today and tomorrow in order to generate profits in a more efficient manner. Thus it is not surprised that there will be continuing grow of e-commerce in the future.

Huh, finally… ^^:::

Yup, I has finished my long winded story about e-commerce finally and hope that everyone who reading this gained something new throughout the previous parts. Thank you for spending time with me here, ciao! =D

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~SiuLing~