HiStOry...
Ecommerce is any business related transactions partially or totally carried out by electronic medium especially on internet using Open networks or Closed network.The most important feature accountable for the success of internet is electronic commerce that allows people to buy or sell anything they want at anytime of the day or night.The process of advancement in Information Technology to evolve into a business transaction is the ecommerce history.

During prehistoric period before invention of electricity, transactions of all the business were done face to face or via letters. Later on this was substituted by telegraph, telephones and in mid 1980’s by fax machines. As large companies invested vastly in researching in order to develop more reliable electronic means of transaction, old technology was replaced by new technologies that were more consistent and spread much faster than the previous technology.

To interchange data and to carry out business deals electronically in 1960’s Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was formulated. Initially ecommerce was facilitating business transactions electronically mostly using technology such as EDI (electronic data interchange) and EFT (electronic funds transfer) to send business documents such as purchase orders or invoices. Previously in 1970’s and 1980’s it also involved data analysis.

Lets have a look into how gradual technical development attributed to the growth of ecommerce:

• In general the first business deal carried out on telephone or via a fax is mainly considered as first ecommerce transaction.
• In 1960’s Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was formulated. This is a set of standard
  instructions to interchange data and to carry out business deals electronically.
• In 1969 ARPANET, was developed by Americas department of defence for researching new reliable networks and later this enhanced into Internet that was purely used as a research tool for nearly 20yrs.
• In 1991, Tim Berners-Lee developed World Wide Web at CERN that started the first Internet transaction. These technology supported exchange of data that was in text format only.
• Later in 1993, Mosiac was developed by Marc Andreessen, this is the first graphic web browser launched to interchange text and graphics and loads of people started downloading it.Netscape the most successful graphic browser was later developed by Marc Andreessen. On the other hand, Microsoft came up with Microsoft Internet Explorer.The first business deal took place in 1994 and since then there have been billions of dealings.
• Later in 1998 DSL was launched into the market that provided much faster access and
  persistent connection to the internet.* In 1998, AOL swamped the market and had about 1.2 billion sales over a period of 10 weeks from online sales.* Ecommerce spread to a significant group globally within a span of 4 years from 1996 to 2000.
• Another major improvement in ecommerce came with the development of Linux a platform more reliable and open source that allowed itself to be customized by its users and put a tough competition to Microsoft that compelled it develop much better versions of networking.
• Amazon and eBay were the first International companies that implemented electronic
  transactions. Initial public offerings by Netscape, Amazon, and EBay had tremendous success and almost every one started implementing business on internet.
  
  
  
  

EvOluTion...

The evolution and acceptance of Credit cards, Automated Teller Machines (ATM) and Telephone banking and later in 1990’s ERP (enterprise resource planning), data mining and warehousing are different types of e-commerce. Activities such as purchasing products over the world wide web which had secured links(HTTP) with e-shopping, carts, electronic payments such as Credit Cards authorization. Today it includes of a very extensive range of activities and methods, from e-banking to Offshore manufacturing to e-logistics. The increasing dependency of ecommerce gave momentum to the advancement and growth of supporting systems, backend systems, applications and middleware. Few examples are Broad-band, Fibre –optic networks, supply-chain management, client management software, client relationship management software and inventory control systems.

The swift growth of ecommerce is due to business ventures implementing the effective policies of ecommerce that embraces the following four crucial principles:

• Security of logical assets - Tough copyright, exclusive rights and other forms of logical asset security are important solutions to reviving the information economy.
• Online reliability, Safety and confidentiality - Advancement in ecommerce is basically due to Customers certainty in the protection, safety measures and confidentiality of information. Safeguarding data and links on the Internet is very important for the steady success of Internet and economy of information. Bias dealings and closed market slow downs the growth of e-business. The laws of information must reflect internet as a global medium. Internets potential will be recognised only in free, open markets.
• Investing in an e-commerce technology infrastructure- Maintenance of the essential physical communications to deliver digital matter (primarily through telecommunications deregulation and government efforts to reduce the digital divide) is very important to encourage technological growth.
  

As a conlusion,the first business deal carried out on telephone or via a fax is mainly considered as first ecommerce transaction.Ecommerce spread to a significant group globally within a span of 4 years from 1996 to 2000. E-commerce technology continues to progress to change personal communication and global trading at an astonishing speed. This not only assures to bring a significant section of global population online but this also brings about major challenges to policymaker and business alike. By 2009 it is estimated that some 47 percent of Business to Business (B2B) commerce will be carried out online.