What is eCommerce?

Since the inception of the Internet, it's the past two decades that have been the most instrumental in changing the way we buy and sell goods and services. It was in 1991 when the Internet opened for commercial use and with the increasing ease of accessibility to the Internet, businesses realised the commercial potential of the newly developing medium. Since then, thousands of businesses, both small and large, have taken up residence on the World Wide Web, enjoying reduced costs and increased profits aided by matchless transactional ease. Today, one of the most popular activities on the Internet is shopping and it's easier than ever for businesses to have their web pages built to display their products and services.

The earlier use of the term eCommerce was limited to processing commercial transactions electronically using top technologies of the time such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). By late 1970s businesses had started using these technologies that enabled them to exchange business information and conduct electronic transactions.

By 1994, Internet usage among general public had become popular but the security protocols and DSL were yet to be developed. By 1998, security protocols such as HTTP and DSL were developed allowing instant access to the Internet. By 2000, many American and European companies had brought their products and service to the Internet. That was the time when the term eCommerce developed a whole new meaning. Now eCommerce was redefined as the process of buying available products and services on the Internet by means of secure connections and electronically processed payments.

The potential of "dot-com" had dawned on the offline businesses who rushed to add eCommerce features to their websites. And as the year 2001 neared its end, eCommerce had counted for $700 billion in business-to-business transactions.

This way of doing business continued to grow rapidly and by December 2007, eCommerce sales accounted for 3.4 percent of total sales. Researches show that 66% of adults have made direct purchases online. And if we extend the definition of eCommerce to include searching products and services online without any purchase taking place, the number of adults participating in eCommerce jumps to an all-reaching 93%. A well known research group, Javelin Strategy and Research, forecasts the volume of debit card online transactions to grow to $93.9 billion while online debit volume is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 19.3% through 2012.

The story of the evolution of ecommerce is incomplete without Amazon and EBay which pioneered online transactions and made people benefit from the internet’s buying and selling advantages. Today Amazon leads the largest global internet retailers with its extensive client base and unique buying and selling features. Statistics reveal that the most popular categories of products sold online are music, books, computers, office supplies and consumer electronics.

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