History and Evolution of E-Commerce

Here is a brief History Of E-Commerce...

• 1990: Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first web browser, WorldWideWeb, using a NeXT computer.

• 1992: J.H. Snider and Terra Ziporyn published Future Shop: How New Technologies Will Change the Way We Shop and What We Buy. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312063598.

• 1994: Netscape released the Navigator browser in October under the code name Mozilla.

Netscape Navigator browser logo

The old Mozilla logo

• Pizza Hut offered pizza ordering on its Web page. The first online bank opened. Attempts to offer flower delivery and magazine subscriptions online. Adult materials were also commercially available, as were cars and bikes. Netscape 1.0 in late 1994 introduced SSL encryption that made transactions secure.

• 1995: Jeff Bezos launched Amazon.com and the first commercial-free 24 hour, internet-only radio stations, Radio HK and NetRadio started broadcasting. Dell and Cisco began to aggressively use Internet for commercial transactions. eBay was founded by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb.

Amazon front page as it is today...

Dell front page (USA)

Cisco front page

eBay front page

• 1998: Electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for printing from the Web.

• 1999: business.com was sold for US $7.5 million, which was purchased in 1997 for US $150,000. The peer-to-peer filesharing software Napster was launched.

Napster & Business.com

• 2000: The dot-com bust.

• 2003: Amazon.com had its first year with a full year of profit.

As for the Evolution of E-Commerce....

• People are saying that if you look at the evolution of Amazon.com, you can roughly see the evolution & future of e-commerce.

• Rich Riley, vice president and general manager of Yahoo Small Business, said that the essence of the Internet is the establishment of a level playing field for communicating and collaborating. He also said "an important milestone in the evolution of e-commerce is the development of affordable, easy-to-use e-commerce solutions that have enabled hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs to transform their unique ideas into online successful businesses,"

Yahoo Small Business Website

• An important milestone was order fulfillment technologies, including shipping, according to UPS Vice President for Customer Technology Jordan Colletta. He said that online buying is mainstream today as compared to a decade ago. This is because there is increased confidence in online order fulfillment, the security of personal data, and easier online return options. Another critical turning point is the evolution of the online payment process. By making the payment process easier, the shipping process has become easier and more visible. Once a shipment is en route, it's trackable at all points along its journey.

• What does the future hold for E-Commerce? Some say we've only just begun. During the next 10 years we can anticipate to see more ease of use, even better technology, dramatically improved visibility as well as a wider array of solutions for both online buyers and merchants.

• Nielsen//Netratings' Daugherty expects to see significant changes as wireless e-commerce grows."In 10 years, consumers ordering products online through their cell phones and PDAs will probably become commonplace. In-store pick up will allow consumers to place the order on their wireless device and get the product easily."

• When consumers tap into broadband, on-demand services would gain greater momentum. For example, If you don't want to drive to the store to pick up your favorite artist's new album, and you don't want it mailed three days later, then you can order the content online instantly. Broadband and instant access is going to change the way we think about e-commerce.

-Joel Vergis-