E-commerce

E-commerce is a transaction of buying or selling online. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange(EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems.

Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at least one part of the transaction's life cycle although it may also use other technologies such as e-mail. Typical e-commerce transactions include the purchase of online books (such as Amazon) and music purchases (music download in the form of digital distribution such as iTunes Store), and to a less extent, customized/personalized online liquor store inventory services.^[1] There are three areas of e-commerce: online retailing, electric markets, and online auctions. E-commerce is supported by electronic business.^[2]

E-commerce businesses may also employ some or all of the followings:

• Online shopping web sites for retail sales direct to consumers
• Providing or participating in online marketplaces, which process third-party business-to-consumer or consumer-to-consumer sales
• Business-to-business buying and selling;
• Gathering and using demographic data through web contacts and social media
• Business-to-business (B2B) electronic data interchange
• Marketing to prospective and established customers by e-mail or fax (for example, with newsletters)
• Engaging in pretail for launching new products and services
• Online financial exchanges for currency exchanges or trading purposes.

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1Timeline
• 2Business application
• 3Governmental regulation
• 4Forms
• 5Global trends
• 6Logistics
• 7Impact on markets and retailers
• 8Impact on supply chain management
• 9Impact on employment
• 10Impact on customers
• 11Social impact
• 12Distribution channels
• 13Examples of new systems
• 14Recommendation
• 15See also
• 16References
• 17Further reading
• 18External links

Timeline[edit]

A timeline for the development of e-commerce:

• 1971 or 1972: The ARPANET is used to arrange a cannabis sale between students at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, later described as "the seminal act of e-commerce" in John Markoff's book What the Dormouse Said.^[3]
• 1979: Michael Aldrich demonstrates the first online shopping system.^[4]
• 1981: Thomson Holidays UK is the first business-to-business online shopping system to be installed.^[5]
• 1982: Minitel was introduced nationwide in France by France Télécom and used for online ordering.
• 1983: California State Assembly holds first hearing on "electronic commerce" in Volcano, California.^[6] Testifying are CPUC, MCI Mail, Prodigy, CompuServe, Volcano Telephone, and Pacific Telesis. (Not permitted to testify is Quantum Technology, later to become AOL.)
• 1984: Gateshead SIS/Tesco is first B2C online shopping system^[7] and Mrs Snowball, 72, is the first online home shopper^[8]
• 1984: In April 1984, CompuServe launches the Electronic Mall in the USA and Canada. It is the first comprehensive electronic commerce service.^[9]
• 1989: In May 1989, Sequoia Data Corp. Introduced Compumarket The first internet based system for e-commerce. Sellers and buyers could post items for sale and buyers could search the database and make purchases with a credit card.
• 1990: Tim Berners-Lee writes the first web browser, WorldWideWeb, using a NeXT computer.^[10]
• 1992: Book Stacks Unlimited in Cleveland opens a commercial sales website (www.books.com) selling books online with credit card processing.
• 1993: Paget Press releases edition No. 3^[11] of the first^{[citation needed]} app store, The Electronic AppWrapper^[12]
• 1994: Netscape releases the Navigator browser in October under the code name Mozilla. Netscape 1.0 is introduced in late 1994 with SSL encryption that made transactions secure.
• 1994: Ipswitch IMail Server becomes the first software available online for sale and immediate download via a partnership between Ipswitch, Inc. and OpenMarket.
• 1994: "Ten Summoner's Tales" by Sting becomes the first secure online purchase through NetMarket.^[13]
• 1995: The US National Science Foundation lifts its former strict prohibition of commercial enterprise on the Internet.^[14]
• 1995: Thursday 27 April 1995, the purchase of a book by Paul Stanfield, Product Manager for CompuServe UK, from W H Smith's shop within CompuServe's UK Shopping Centre is the UK's first national online shopping service secure transaction. The shopping service at launch featured W H Smith, Tesco, Virgin Megastores/Our Price, Great Universal Stores (GUS), Interflora, Dixons Retail, Past Times, PC World (retailer) and Innovations.
• 1995: Jeff Bezos launches Amazon.com and the first commercial-free 24-hour, internet-only radio stations, Radio HK and NetRadio start broadcasting. eBay is founded by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb.
• 1996: IndiaMART B2B marketplace established in India.
• 1996: ECPlaza B2B marketplace established in Korea.
• 1996: The use of Excalibur BBS with replicated "Storefronts" was an early implementation of electronic commerce started by a group of SysOps in Australia and replicated to global partner sites.
• 1998: Electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for printing from the Web.^[15]
• 1999: Alibaba Group is established in China. 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.
• 1999:  Global e-commerce reaches $150 billion^[16]
• 2000: Complete Idiot's Guide to e-commerce released on Amazon
• 2000: The dot-com bust.
• 2001: Alibaba.com achieved profitability in December 2001.
• 2002: eBay acquires PayPal for $1.5 billion.^[17] Niche retail companies Wayfair 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.
• 2003: Bossgoo B2B marketplace established in China.
• 2004: DHgate.com, China's first online b2b transaction platform, is established, forcing other b2b sites to move away from the "yellow pages" model.^[18]
• 2007: Business.com acquired by R.H. Donnelley for $345 million.^[19]
• 2009: Zappos.com acquired by Amazon.com for $928 million.^[20] 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.^[21]
• 2010: Groupon reportedly rejects a $6 billion offer from Google. Instead, the group buying websites went ahead with an IPO on 4 November 2011. It was the largest IPO since Google.^[22][23]
• 2012: Zalora Group was founded and started operations around Asia.
• 2014: Overstock.com processes over $1 million in Bitcoin sales.^[24] India's e-commerce industry is estimated to have grown more than 30% from 2012 to $12.6 billion in 2013.^[25]US e-commerce and Online Retail sales projected to reach $294 billion, an increase of 12 percent over 2013 and 9% of all retail sales.^[26] Alibaba Group has the largest Initial public offering ever, worth $25 billion.
• 2015: Amazon.com accounts for more than half of all e-commerce growth,^[27] selling almost 500 Million SKU's in the US.
• 2016: Amazon.com aided more than 10,000 sellers^[28] to generate more than $1 million of annual sales .^[29]
• 2016: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3.3 billion^[30]
• 2017: On march Amazon.com acquired Souq.com the bigest e-commerce website in Middle East ( Egypt, KSA and UAE).