BizAims

The Starting Point

Surely the meaning of what we know today as e-commerce has significantly changed over the 30 years since its appearance. At the beginning the term "electronic commerce" implied facilitation of commercial transactions through electronic means, and namely with the help of special technologies called Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).

Both of these technologies were launched in the late 1970s. With their help businesses were able to electronically transfer commercial documents such as purchase orders or invoices. Some new forms of electronic commerce were added in the 1980s. These included credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking. Since 1990s the e-commerce includes such services as enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining as well as data warehousing.

Boston Computer Exchange, was presumably the first ever many-to-many electronic commerce model in physical goods.

Another online system that was introduced in 1991 was the American Information Exchange. It was the first online information marketplace that involved online consulting.

The Development of the Web

After Web started gaining popularity in 1994, a lot of journalists predicted that electronic commerce will soon get big and occupy its niche in the economy. The security protocols still required 4 more years in order to be developed and widely positioned. In the period between 1998 and 2000 there was a significant number of businesses in the U.S. and Western Europe who started creating their own websites, these, however, being quite simple.

Purchasing goods and services over the Web began in the dot com era. The e-commerce usually implied secure connections and e-shopping carts, as well as electronic payment services, including credit card payment authorizations. In the period between 2000 and 2001 a huge number of companies practicing "pure e-commerce" collapsed, but these companies certainly had identified important niche markets.

After the fall of pure e-commerce companies a lot of "brick-and-mortar" retailers started adding e-commerce features to their own sites. Albertsons and Safeway, for instance, being 2 traditional supermarket chains, began e-commerce subsidiaries after the Webvan's (an online grocer) fall.

The development and continuous growth of e-commerce also decreased the obstacles to the entry of many types of goods. Today, quite often a lot of small sellers prefer to use online action sites like eBay, or they may also consider selling through large corporate websites such as Amazon.com.

The largest online retailers include: Amazon, Staples, Office Depot, Dell, and Hewlett Packard. The most purchased goods on the Web are books, music, office supplies, as well as computers and other consumer electronics.