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 Generic models of B2C commerce are outdated and newer efforts are needed to leverage the untapped potential offered in the digital medium.

An Example of an E-Commerce Success and its Cause – Amazon.com

Amozon.com was launched in 1999 and was best known as the first online retailer of the internet world. It leads to sale books with its wide range that related to a variety of subjects and topics. It also is the only website that contains web books, business brands and retails on a single web-based business. Besides leads to sale books, it also offers a variety of electronic items such as video, wireless cell phone, software, music and many more stuff.

The strong organizational and effective team management strategies has make Amazon.com immensely gained economic profits in the e-commerce world. The customer relation management is one of the key elements of its success. Teams are small and the staffs are assigned authority and empowered to solve a problem as a service in anyway they feel fit. They also work from the customer backward and focus on value delivered to the customer. Furthermore, the efficiency in dealing the customers and making them a priority as providing exceptional customer services make Amazon.com on top of all the other e-commerce companies.

There are some policies that used by Amazon.com, such as “E-mail Your Friends About Your Book” that authors can introduce to their friends and families with the books. With the “Rate This Items” feature, they also can rank their own book and the more chances it has of being highly ranked in the overall Amazon system, the better sale on Amazon.

With its best marketing techniques and expertise in relation to the market trends and demands of its customers, it leads Amazon.com achieve tremendous success in the field of e-commerce.

An example of E-Commerce failure and its cause – Pets.Com.

One of the top ten Dot-com failure is Pets.com. Pets.com was launched in November 1998 and initially was deemed successful as it sought to conquer the market of selling pet supplies direct to customers and accessories over the internet. Furthermore, the appearance of pets.com sock puppet mascot was became so popular that appear in a multimillion-dollar Super Bowl commercial and as a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. But it is a dramatic change like many other Dot.com failures continued to experience drops in the share price over the next ten month and have to declare bankrupt.

The causes of its failure may consist of poor business plan such as the company had to undercharge for shipping costs to attract customers but it actually lost money on most of the items it sold, so that purchasing online offered no real benefit whether it is in regards to price or convenience. Moreover, after their customers made an order, they need to wait for few days to actually get it. Furthermore, the hierarchy of the company was in shambles as the CEO and managing body had little experience in running a company, it may lead to the lack of a sufficient business proposal. Other than that, the idea of pets.com was inadequate. They failed to give the customer enough reason to purchase pet goods via the internet rather than their traditional source.

How E-commerce can reduce cycle time, improve employees’ empowerment, and facilitate customer support?

E-commerce becomes more important recently. There are many impacts of e-marketplaces on B2C direct marketing. E-commerce can reduce cycle time, improve employees’ empowerment, and facilitate customer support.

A business process begins with a customer’s need and ends with a customer’s need fulfillment. Business Processes are designed to add value for the customer and should not include unnecessary activities. In e-marketplaces, the business process can be reduced. The delivery time of digitized products and services can be reduced to seconds. Also, the administrative work related to physical delivery, especially across international borders, can be reduced significantly, cutting the cycle time by more than 90 percent. Besides, cycle time can be reduced through improvements along the supply chain.

E-commerce also can improve employees’ empowerment since more information is provided easily. Employees can search any information in the network. This is useful for them to make decision. A more cost-effective, robust network has helped deliver significant savings to BankAtlantic shareholders while improving network performance by providing faster application response times to customer service representatives at individual stores and its customer service centers. BankAtlantic has also realized an improvement to its business continuity capabilities through incorporating complete network redundancy of their core application throughout their enterprise.

Customer service can be greatly enhanced by enabling customers to find detailed information online. For example, FedEx and other shippers allow customers to trace the status of their packages. Beside that, many company using FAQ, which is self help customer support. Some company also provides search engine to save time in searching the company’s product. Usually, this company is selling different models of product. For example, Nokia is providing search engine.

Other than that, E-commerce also can provide product promotion, direct savings, customization, advertising, ordering system, market operations and so on.