History of Ecommerce

Whereas the history of e-commerce is short, e-commerce has changed how we have a tendency to do business on-line. Learn a lot of about the history of e-commerce.

By definition, e-commerce means that the buying or selling of products and services over the Internet. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 66 % of the adults on-line have purchased something over the Internet, whether or not it's books, shoes or a Caribbean cruise.

However if you extend e-commerce's definition to include researching merchandise and services on-line without shopping for anything, or bidding on an online auction however not winning, then the number of adults who participate in e-commerce jumps to ninety three p.c [source: Pew Internet & American Life Project]. That's simply about all folks.

Even with a slumping world economy, online retail sales still rise. According to recent forecasts by Forrester Research, online retail sales can increase 17 % in 2008 to reach an annual total of $204 billion, with the most important sellers being clothing, computers and cars [supply: InformationWeek].

E-commerce's history is short however fascinating. Over the course of a few decades, networking and computing technology have improved at exponential rates. Powerful personal computers linked to international data networks have powered a whole new world of intellectual, social and money interactions. And this is solely the beginning.