The electronic commerce (E-Commerce) can be defined as a modern business methodology that addresses the needs of organizations, merchants and consumers to cut costs while improving the quality of goods and services and increasing the speed of service delivery by using internet. It enables the trading of goods, money and information electronically from computer to computer. Business is done electronically and there is no longer a need for physical currency or goods to conduct business.
The history of E-commerce is a history of how Information Technology has transformed business processes. It provides with a detailed explanation of the stages which E-commerce has actually evolved and began to be used as a popular online mean of economic exchange where it refers to the online transaction of goods. There have been several key steps in the history of e-commerce. The first step came from the development of the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). EDI is a set of standards developed in the 1960s to exchange business information and do electronic transactions. The next major step occurred in 1992s where the Mosaic web-browser becomes the first ‘point and click’ browser. The Mosaic browser was quickly adapted into a downloadable browser, and Netscape which allowed easier access to E-commerce. Moreover, the development of DSL was allowed quicker access and a persistent connection to the Internet. The development of Red Hat Linux was also another major step in E-commerce growth. Linux gave users another choice in a platform other then Windows that was reliable and open-source.
Evolution of E-commerce can be attributed to a combination of regulatory reform and technological innovation. Through internet which played an important role in evolution that appeared in the late 1960s, E-commerce of today took off with the arrival of World Wide Web and browsers in early 1990s. The liberalization of the telecommunications sector and innovations such as optic fiber and DSL which has helped to expand the volume and capacity of communications that helped in the process of rapid growth. As a result, the barriers to entry and engage in E-commerce have fallen rapidly. In other word, the evolution of E-commerce is where the internet and electronic data exchanges are steadily becoming valuable tools in the supply chain, but in a way that involves instead of eliminates dealers.
In conclusion, E-commerce is the most important facets of the Internet that have emerged in the recent times. It involves carrying out business over the internet with the assistance of computers, which are linked to each other forming a network. To be specific E-commerce would be buying and selling of goods and services and transfer of funds through digital communications. The benefit of E-commerce is to allow people to carry out businesses without the barriers of time or distance. One can log on to the Internet at any point of time, be it day or night and purchase or sell anything one desires at a single click of the mouse. This simply means of cheapest in doing business by using E-commerce.
