History of E-commerce

E-commerce refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet.

 E-commerce: electronic commerce:  is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the internet. These business transactions occur either as business-to-business, business-to-consumer, consumer-to-consumer or consumer-to-business. EC can also be benefited from many perspective including business process, service, learning, collaborative, community.

Ecommerce or "electronic commerce" is the trading of goods and services online. The internet allows individuals and businesses to buy and sell an increasing amount of physical goods, digital goods, and services electronically.

 Electronic Commerce (e-Commerce) is a term popularized by the advent of commercial services on the Internet. Internet e-Commerce is however, only one part of the overall sphere of e-Commerce. The commercial use of the Internet is perhaps typified by once-off sales to consumers. Other types of transactions use other technologies. Electronic Markets (EMs) are in use in a number of trade segments with an emphasis on search facilities and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is used for regular and standardized transactions between organizations. The mainstream of e-Commerce consists of these three areas: Electronic Markets, EDI and Internet Commerce.

Most of us have shopped online for something at some point, which means we've taken part in e-commerce. So it goes without saying that e-commerce is everywhere. But very few people may know that e-commerce has a history that predates the internet.

E-commerce actually goes back to the 1960s, when companies used an electronic system called the Electronic Data Interchange to facilitate the transfer of documents. It wasn't until 1994 that the very first transaction took place. This involved the sale of a CD between friends through an online retail website called NetMarket.

The industry has evolved rapidly since then, with companies like Alibaba and Amazon becoming household names around the world. The introduction of free shipping, which, at least on the surface, reduces costs for consumers, has also helped increase the popularity of the e-commerce industry.