SUBMIITED BY:
lalit Verma

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ORIGIN OF E-COMMERCE
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or e-commerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with widespread Internet usage. The use of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in 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 at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail, mobile devices and telephones as well.A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of 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 have electronic commerce presence on the World Wide Web.
Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market). Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. This is the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies such as Amazon.com. Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce where the buyer is directly online to the seller's computer usually via the internet. There is no intermediary service. The sale and purchase transaction is completed electronically and interactively in real-time such as Amazon.com for new books. If an intermediary is present, then the sale and purchase transaction is called electronic commerce such as eBay.com.
DEFINE E-COMMERCE
One only has to pick up virtually any newspaper or business-related magazine to see a story about some facet of e-commerce. Businesses are incorporating e-commerce into strategic plans, business schools are incorporating it into their curriculum, and consulting and software firms are marketing electronic commerce “solutions”. So what exactly is electronic commerce? We define E-Commerce as :-
“The use of electronic transmission mediums to engage in the exchange, including buying and selling, of products and services requiring transportation, either physically or digitally, from location to location”
Electronic commerce involves all sizes of transaction bases. As one would expect, electronic commerce requires the digital transmission of transaction information. While transactions are conducted via electronic devices, they may be transported using either traditional physical shipping channels, such as a ground delivery service, or digital mechanisms, such as the download of a product from the internet.
Those readers familiar with traditional electronic data interchange system (EDI) may be questioning what makes electronic commerce different from the EDI systems that have been in place for the past 20-30 years. EDI is a subset of electronic commerce. A primary difference between the two is that electronic commerce encompasses a broader commerce environment than EDI. Traditional EDI systems allow pre-established trading partners to electronically exchange business data. The vast majority of traditional EDI systems are centered around the purchasing function. These EDI systems are generally costly to implement. The high entry cost precluded many small and mid-sized businesses from engaging in EDI. Electronic commerce allows a marketplace to exist where buyers and sellers can “meet” and transact with one another.
Traditional vs. Electronic Commerce
History
Early development
Originally, electronic commerce was identified as the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (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 of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were also forms of electronic commerce. Another form of e-commerce was the airline reservation system typified 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 World Wide Web browser and transformed an academic telecommunication network into a worldwide everyman everyday communication system called internet/ Commercial enterprise on the Internet was strictly prohibited by NSF until 1995.[1] Although the Internet became popular worldwide around 1994 with the adoption of Mosaic web browser, it took about five years to introduce security protocols and DSL allowing continual connection to the Internet. By the end of 2000, many European and American business companies offered their services through the World Wide Web. Since then people began to associate a word "ecommerce" with the ability of purchasing various goods through the Internet using secure protocols and electronic payment services.
Timeline
• 1979: Michael Aldrich invented online shopping.
• ]1981: Thomson Holidays, UK is first B2B online shopping.
• 1982: Minitel was introduced nationwide in France by France Telecom and used for online ordering.
• 1984: Gates head SIS/Tesco is first B2C online shopping and Mrs. Snowball, 72, is the first online home shopper
• 1985: Nissan UK sells cars and finance with credit checking to customers online from dealers' lots.
• 1987: Serge begins to provide software and shareware authors means to sell their products online through an electronic Merchant account.
• 1990: Tim Berners-Lee writes the first web browser, World Wide Web, using a NeXT computer.
• 1994: Netscape releases the Navigator browser in October under the code name Mozilla. Pizza Hut offers online ordering on its Web page. The first online bank opens. Attempts to offer flower 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.
• 1995: Jeff Bozos launches Amazon.com and the first commercial-free 24 hour, internet-only radio stations, Radio HK and Net Radio start broadcasting. Dell and Cisco begin to aggressively use Internet for commercial transactions. EBay is founded by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as Auction Web.
• 1998: Electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for printing from the Web.
• 1999: Business.com sold for US $7.5 million to e-companies, which was purchased in 1997 for US $149,000. The peer-to-peer file sharing software Napster launches. ATG Stores launches to sell decorative items for the home online.
• 2000: The dot-com bust.
• 2002: eBay acquires PayPal for $1.5 billion. Niche retail companies CSN Stores and Net Shops are founded with the concept of selling products through several targeted domains, rather than a central portal.
• 2003: Amazon.com posts first yearly profit.
• 2007: Business.com acquired by R.H. Donnelley for $345 million.
• 2009: Zappos.com acquired by Amazon.com for $928 million. 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.
• 2010: Group on reportedly rejects a $6 billion offer from Google. Instead, the group buying websites plans to go ahead with an IPO in mid-2011
• 2011: US ecommerce and Online Retail sales projected to reach $197 billion, an increase of 12 percent over 2010. Quidsi.com, parent company of Diapers.com, acquired by Amazon.com for $500 million in cash and plus $45 million in debt and other obligations.]