Thursday, September 16, 2010

E-commerce

History

Early development

The meaning of electronic commerce has changed over the last 30 years. Originally, electronic commerce meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). These were both introduced in the late 1970s, allowing businesses to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically. The growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were also forms of electronic commerce. Another form of e-commerce was the airline reservation system typified by Sabre in the USA and Travicom in the UK.
From the 1990s onwards, electronic commerce would additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing.
An early example of many-to-many electronic commerce in physical goods was the Boston Computer Exchange, a marketplace for used computers launched in 1982. An early online information marketplace, including online consulting, was the American Information Exchange, another pre Internet[clarification needed] online system introduced in 1991.
In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee invented the WorldWideWeb web browser and transformed an academic telecommunication network into a worldwide everyman everyday communication system called internet/www. Commercial enterprise on the Internet was strictly prohibited until 1991.[1] Although the Internet became popular worldwide around 1994 when the first internet online shopping started, it took about five years to introduce security protocols and DSL allowing continual connection to the Internet. By the end of 2000, many European and American business companies offered their services through the World Wide Web. Since then people began to associate a word "ecommerce" with the ability of purchasing various goods through the Internet using secure protocols and electronic payment services.

Timeline

  • 1979: Michael Aldrich invented online shopping
  • 1981: Thomson Holidays, UK is first B2B online shopping
  • 1982: Minitel was introduced nationwide in France by France Telecom and used for online ordering.
  • 1984: Gateshead SIS/Tesco is first B2C online shopping and Mrs Snowball, 72, is the first online home shopper
  • 1985: Nissan UK sells cars and finance with credit checking to customers online from dealers' lots.
  • 1987: Swreg begins to provide software and shareware authors means to sell their products online through an electronic Merchant account.
  • 1990: Tim Berners-Lee writes the first web browser, WorldWideWeb, using a NeXT computer.
  • 1992: J.H. Snider and Terra Ziporyn publish Future Shop: How New Technologies Will Change the Way We Shop and What We Buy. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-06359-8.
  • 1994: Netscape releases the Navigator browser in October under the code name Mozilla. Pizza Hut offers online ordering on its Web page. The first online bank opens. Attempts to offer flower delivery and magazine subscriptions online. Adult materials also become commercially available, as do cars and bikes. Netscape 1.0 is introduced in late 1994 SSL encryption that made transactions secure.
  • 1995: Jeff Bezos launches Amazon.com and the first commercial-free 24 hour, internet-only radio stations, Radio HK and NetRadio start broadcasting. Dell and Cisco begin to aggressively use Internet for commercial transactions. eBay is founded by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb.
  • 1998: Electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for printing from the Web.
  • 1999: Business.com sold for US $7.5 million to eCompanies, which was purchased in 1997 for US $149,000. The peer-to-peer filesharing software Napster launches. ATG Stores launches to sell decorative items for the home online.
  • 2000: The dot-com bust.
  • 2002: eBay acquires PayPal for $1.5 billion.[2] Niche retail companies CSN Stores and NetShops are founded with the concept of selling products through several targeted domains, rather than a central portal.
  • 2003: Amazon.com posts first yearly profit.
  • 2007: Business.com acquired by R.H. Donnelley for $345 million.[3]
  • 2009: Zappos.com acquired by Amazon.com for $928 million.[4] Retail Convergence, operator of private sale website RueLaLa.com, acquired by GSI Commerce for $180 million, plus up to $170 million in earn-out payments based on performance through 2012.[5]
  • 2010: US eCommerce and Online Retail sales projected to reach $173 billion, an increase of 7 percent over 2009.[6]

Business applications

Some common applications related to electronic commerce are the following:
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