Wednesday, January 20, 2010

What's The Truth About Ecommerce History

By David Green

Way before the first Internet connection started, ecommerce has already began. In 1960s, things began happening that brought ecommerce to its level today.

The EDI was developed in the 1960s. This means Electronic Data Interchange. EDI is a set of standards for electronic transactions and the exchange of business information. Companies though were still unable to do business with each other because of different EDI formats. In 1984, the ASC x12 became the standard for transferring large transactions electronically and was quickly adapted by businesses who wanted to transact business electronically.

Mosaic, the first click browser, was developed in 1992. Netscape, the first downloadable browser, paved the way, for people to use the internet for electronic commerce. These were the first steps in ecommerce history that led to its widespread usage today.

The invention of DSL gave users more ease in doing ecommerce and it was in the 1998 Christmas season when the record for most ecommerce sales was made. AOL had a $1B recorded online sales for that same season.

The development of Red Hat Linux gave computer users a choice. Windows ceased to become the online option and users had the choice to use the opensourced, reliable Linux OS instead. This made Windows to expand its ecommerce.

It was in 1999 when Napster was founded and it started out as a site were people can share music files for free and its creation was a huge impact in ecommerce history. As it grew more popular, consumers can now suggest what they wanted to see in the site and in ecommerce. When Aol and Time Warner emrged in 2000, it also merged an established traditional company with a relatively new online company. It was also in 2000 when Yahoo, Amazon.com and Ebay became popular sites. Their popularity made them vulnerable against computer hackers thus creating a need for higher Internet security. This attack made ecommerce history as the push for more secure browser and security features become remarkable.

Every major retail players like Sears, Wal-Mart and Borders bookstore have online presence that allows for convenience to transact business electronically that even traditional companies started adapting to ecommerce. In 2001, business to business transactions amounted to $700B. While more people have discovered convenience of doing ecommerce in the comforts of their home, it's clear that ecommerce history is not yet a closed book as it is still continually changing and becoming more popular as online shopping.

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