Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, eCommerce or e-comm, reIers to the

buying and selling oI products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other
computer networks. However, the term may reIer to more than just buying and selling products
online. It also includes the entire online process oI developing, marketing, selling, delivering,
servicing and paying Ior products and services. The amount oI trade conducted electronically has
grown extraordinarily with widespread Internet usage. The use oI commerce is conducted in this
way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic Iunds transIer, 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 at least at one point in the transaction's
liIe-cycle, although it may encompass a wider range oI technologies such as e-mail, mobile
devices and telephones as well.
A large percentage oI electronic commerce is conducted entirely in electronic Iorm Ior virtual
items such as access to premium content on a website, but mostly electronic commerce involves
the transportation oI physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-
tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers are now
electronically present on the World Wide Web.
Electronic commerce that takes place between businesses is reIerred to as business-to-business or
B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to speciIic,
pre-qualiIied participants (private electronic market). Electronic commerce that takes place
between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is reIerred to as business-to-consumer or
B2C. This is the type oI electronic commerce conducted by companies such as Amazon.com.
Online shopping is a Iorm oI electronic commerce where the buyer is directly online to the
seller's computer usually via the internet. There is no intermediary service involved. The sale or
purchase transaction is completed electronically and interactively in real-time such as in
Amazon.com Ior new books. However in some cases, an intermediary may be present in a sale or
purchase transaction such as the transactions on eBay.com.
Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect oI e-business. It also consists
oI the exchange oI data to Iacilitate the Iinancing and payment aspects oI business transactions.

istory
Early development
Originally, electronic commerce was identiIied as the Iacilitation oI commercial transactions
electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds
TransIer (EFT). These were both introduced in the late 1970s, allowing businesses to send
commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically. The growth and
acceptance oI credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s
were also Iorms oI electronic commerce. Another Iorm oI e-commerce was the airline
reservation system typiIied by Sabre in the USA and Travicom in the UK.
From the 1990s onwards, electronic commerce would additionally include enterprise resource
planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing.
In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee invented the WorldWideWeb web browser and transIormed an
academic telecommunication network into a worldwide everyman everyday communication
system called internet/www. Commercial enterprise on the Internet was strictly prohibited by
NSF until 1995.
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Although the Internet became popular worldwide around 1994 with the
adoption oI Mosaic web browser, it took about Iive years to introduce security protocols and
DSL allowing continual connection to the Internet. By the end oI 2000, many European and
American business companies oIIered their services through the World Wide Web. Since then
people began to associate a word "ecommerce" with the ability oI purchasing various goods
through the Internet using secure protocols and electronic payment services.

%imeline
O 1979: Michael Aldrich invented online shopping
O 1981: Thomson Holidays, UK is Iirst B2B online shopping
O 1982: Minitel was introduced nationwide in France by France Telecom and used Ior online
ordering.
O 1984: Gateshead SIS/Tesco is Iirst B2C online shopping and Mrs Snowball, 72, is the Iirst
online home shopper
O 1985: Nissan UK sells cars and Iinance with credit checking to customers online Irom
dealers' lots.|citation needed|
O 1987: Swreg begins to provide soItware and shareware authors means to sell their products
online through an electronic Merchant account.|citation needed|
O 1990: Tim Berners-Lee writes the Iirst web browser, WorldWideWeb, using a NeXT
computer.
O 1992: Terry Brownell launches Iirst Iully graphical, iconic navigated Bulletin board system
online shopping using RoboBOARD/FX.
O 1994: Netscape releases the Navigator browser in October under the code name Mozilla.
Pizza Hut oIIers online ordering on its Web page. The Iirst online bank opens. Attempts to
oIIer Ilower delivery and magazine subscriptions online. Adult materials also become
commercially available, as do cars and bikes. Netscape 1.0 is introduced in late 1994 SSL
encryption that made transactions secure.
O 1995: JeII Bezos launches Amazon.com and the Iirst commercial-Iree 24 hour, internet-only
radio stations, Radio HK and NetRadio start broadcasting. Dell and Cisco begin to
aggressively use Internet Ior commercial transactions. eBay is Iounded by computer
programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb.
O 1998: Electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded Ior printing Irom the Web.
O 1998: Alibaba Group is established in China. And it leverage China's B2B and C2C,
B2C(Taobao) market by its Authentication System.
O 1999: Business.com sold Ior US $7.5 million to eCompanies, which was purchased in 1997
Ior US $149,000. The peer-to-peer Iilesharing soItware Napster launches. ATG Stores
launches to sell decorative items Ior the home online.
O 2000: The dot-com bust.
O 2001: Alibaba.com achieved proIitability in December 2011.
O 2002: eBay acquires PayPal Ior $1.5 billion.|3| Niche retail companies WayIair and
NetShops are Iounded with the concept oI selling products through several targeted domains,
rather than a central portal.
O 2003: Amazon.com posts Iirst yearly proIit.
O 2004: DHgate.com, China's Iirst online b2b transaction platIorm, is established, Iorcing other
b2b sites to move away Irom the "yellow pages" model.
O 2007: Business.com acquired by R.H. Donnelley Ior $345 million.
O 2009: Zappos.com acquired by Amazon.com Ior $928 million Retail Convergence, operator
oI private sale website RueLaLa.com, acquired by GSI Commerce Ior $180 million, plus up
to $170 million in earn-out payments based on perIormance through 2012.
O 2010: Groupon reportedly rejects a $6 billion oIIer Irom Google. Instead, the group buying
websites plans to go ahead with an IPO in mid-2011.
O 2011: US ecommerce and Online Retail sales projected to reach $197 billion, an increase oI
12 percent over 2010. Quidsi.com, parent company oI Diapers.com, acquired by
Amazon.com Ior $500 million in cash plus $45 million in debt and other obligations. GSI
Commerce, a company specializing in creating, developing and running online shopping
sites Ior brick and mortar businesses, acquired by eBay Ior $2.4 billion.