If there is one thing that revolutionalised how business is being done generally, it is the introduction of e-commerce. This process allows products and services to be bought from anywhere around the world. It is really a game-changer. In this article, I want to look at the evolution of e-commerce. We want to look at how we begin the journey until we get to where we are now. Follow me as we are going to look at that in this article.
Now the stages…
#1 Late 1970s
At this stage, e-commerce is limited to facilitation of the commercial transactions. It is only limited only to buying and selling of products and services. At this stage, technologies such as EDI and EDT is being used to facilitate commerce.
#2 In the 1980s
At this stage, credit cards Automated Teller Machine and telephone banking was being introduced to e-commerce. This allows banks to play major roles in commercial transactions. This also increases the volume of sales globally.
#3 From the 1990s
At this stage, e-commerce now included Enterprise Resource Planning Systems, data mining and data warehousing. This was when organisations such as Amazon, and Yahoo among others launched out.
#4 1998-2000
At this time, a substantial number of businesses around the world started embracing e-commerce. It was also around this time that Google came around and change the internet business landscape generally.
#5 2000-2002
This was the period that Wikipedia was launched. it was also the period that paypal.com came around as well. It marks the beginning of internet marketing.
This was when mobile commerce and social commerce were launched. Now people can purchase products and services using mobile phones. It now becomes possible for people to purchase products and services through social media platforms.
