History of E-Commerce
1960s-1970s:
- E-commerce got its start in the 1960s with the creation of a computerized check processing system called Electronic Recording Machine-Accounting (ERMA) was introduced. ERMA processed millions of checks every year.
- Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was developed in the 1960s and saw use in the 1970s. EDI allowed for the processing of shipping documents and purchase orders.
- In 1969, UPS was a national alternative to the postal service for shipping and distribution. They were available in 31 states with permission pending for eight more.
- The 1970s also saw the introduction of Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT). This allowed for the processing of payments online.
- In 1979, online shopping was invented by Michael Aldrich of the UK.
Links:
http://www.sri.com/about/ermastory.html
http://www.aldricharchive.com/shopping_history.html
1980s:
- The explosion of credit cards, ATM machines, and telephone banking was the next step in the evolution of electronic commerce
- The Boston Computer Exchange, a marketplace for used computer equipment started in 1982, was one of the first known examples of e-commerce
- Online shopping was invented in the UK by Michael Aldrich in 1979
- The early online transactions in the 1980s were heavily reliant on the Aldrich model and the slow dial-up capabilities of the internet services available at that time
- Large automotive companies like GM, Nissan, and Peugeot used the system but it was very slow
Links:
1990s:
1996
HTML 3.2 W3C’s previous recommendation for HTML 3.2 represented the consensus on HTML features for 1996. HTML 3.2 added widely deployed features such as tables, applets, and text flow around images, superscripts, and subscripts while providing backwards compatibility with existing pages.
1995
HTML 2.0 Standard (RFC 1866) developed by the IETF’s HTML working group, which closed in 1996. It set the standard for core HTML features based upon current practise in 1994. HTML 2.0 (November 1995) was developed under the aegis of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to codify common practice in late 1994. HTML+ (1993) and HTML 3.0 (1995) proposed much richer versions of HTML. Despite never receiving consensus in standards discussions, these drafts led to the adoption of a range new features. The efforts of the World Wide Web Consortium’s HTML working group to codify common practice in 1996 resulted in HTML 3.2 (January 1997, see [HTML32]).”
1994
A Basic HTML Style Guide It was last updated on September 16, 1994 by me while still at NASA/GSFC. But if you’d like a peek into the early days of the web this is quaint.
1992
Summary — /WWW “The WWW world consists of documents and links. Indexes are special documents which, rather than being read, may be searched. The result of such a search is another (“virtual”) document containing links to the documents found. A simple protocol (“HTTP”) is used to allow a browser program to request a keyword search by a remote information server.”
1991
HTML Design Constraints “It is required that HTML be a common language between all platforms. This implies no device-specific markup, or anything which requires control over fonts or colors, for example. This is in keeping with the SGML ideal.”
1990
The original proposal of the WWW is a hand conversion to HTML of the original MacWord document written in March 1989 and later redistributed unchanged apart from the date added in May 1990. This document was an attempt to persuade CERN management that a global hypertext system was in CERN’s interests.
- The science and technology of the 1990s would pave the way for the lifestyle that most people take for granted today. Whereas few modern teenagers could conceive of a world without MP3’s, cell phones and emails, those who grew up in the 1990s not only experienced the first stumbling steps towards these products but also saw how they came to change the very fabric of our culture, keystones of modern life that were born from the imaginations of the 90’s generation.
- Two more inventions in the 1990s would capture headlines and consumer dollars. MP3’s, which were digitally-compressed music files, allowed anyone to share their entire music collection across the internet quickly and with CD-quality sound. The second important digital development of the decade in terms of entertainment media was the DVD.
Telephones were not new in the 1990s, but the decade saw innovation in the technology in the form of cordless phones, cell phones, and continued use of answering machines.
Read more: The History of Communication Devices
Links:
http://www.wdvl.com/Internet/History/
http://www.90s411.com/90s-technology.html
2000-Present:
- Social media has taken off since the early 2000s. Surveys estimate that 47.1% of retailers will be increasing their use of social media. Going along with that, 60.3% of retailers have made changes to their Facebook and/or Twitter pages, while nearly 65% of retailers have added blogs or RSS feed pages. A report from eMarketer suggests that more than 70 million U.S. mobile phone users will at some point access the internet from their phone this year.1
- The U.S. Census Bureau released data at the end of Quarter 2 of 2010, which showed e-commerce sales and growth starting in 2000. In 2000 e-commerce sales sat at about 27.5 billion dollars, nine years later sales have increased a remarkable 80%, up to a dollar figure of $143.389 billion, which is a compound growth rate of 20%. One method that is going to keep e-commerce growing at these compound rates is the newly accepted method of m-commerce. M-commerce is expected to have a positive impact on e-commerce sales figures for at least the next 5 years.2
- Over the decades, new types of products and companies have added e-commerce. Today, items including insurance, toys, electronics, and now food are available online. e-commerce has touched the homes of millions of consumers. With the outstanding speed of internet connections, online purchases boom during peak buying seasons, for example, holidays.
1E-commerce has become very prominent not only in the United States, but overseas as well. Over $1.5 trillion in Business-to-Business e-commerce sales occurred in Europe-Africa and Asia-Pacific in the year 2004. e-commerce statistics are available for 21 major countries.
2During this decade, Social Networking has become one of the largest providers for advertising revenues. Over 100 million people visit FaceBook on a monthly basis.
Links:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/e-commerce_top_internet_trends_of_2000-2009.php
http://dstevenwhite.com/2010/08/20/u-s-e-commerce-growth-2000-2009/