The History and Evolution of E-commerce

Sometimes it seems like e-commerce has always been a part of our lives. Most of us make business transactions online on such a regular basis. E-commerce became possible in 1991 when the Internet was opened to commercial use. Since that date thousands of businesses have taken up residence at web sites. EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is developed in the late 1970s it is widely viewed as the beginning of ecommerce which gave an opportunity for users to exchange business information and do electronic transactions.

In 1984, the ASC X12 standard became stable and reliable in transferring large amounts of transactions. In1992 the Mosaic web-browser was made available, it was the first ‘point and click’ browser. During the year 1994, Netscape arrived. It provides users a simple browser to surf the Internet and a safe online transaction technology called Secure Sockets Layer. In 1995, Amazon.com and eBay.com were launched and we really started seeing the type of e-commerce that we’re used to today. DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) is another key moment in the development to of e-commerce. DSL allowed quicker access and a persistent connection to the Internet.

From the Internet to Intranets to Extranets has been a speedy development in the past 5 years. The 3 C’s of first generation E-commerce: Content, Community, and Commerce have now evolved into 7 C’s of second generation E-commerce: Content, Community, Commerce (e.g. Amazon), Communication (e.g. Doubleclick), Connectivity (e.g. Cisco), Collaboration (Mercata), and Customization (e.g. Netperceptions). Each of these C’s reflect an evolution of features that it enabling automated processes to extending these processes externally with other consumers as well as business partners.

B2C (Business to Consumer) models have been tried and tested during the first generation of E-commerce boom, but the newer trends are toward B2B (Business to Business) and Click-and-Mortar models. Generic models of B2C commerce are outdated and newer efforts are needed to leverage the untapped potential offered in the digital medium.