Ecommerce has transformed our world. The advent and mass adoption of smartphones has fundamentally transformed the way that we shop. Looking back even just a few short years ago offers a very different view of the role of technology in our lives. In order to truly grasp where we’ve come as a society, in terms of innovation, it is often valuable to stop and look back to see where we’ve been.
The Early Days
In the 1960s, out of a need for advanced communications networks, EDI was developed in the transportation industry. EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange and allows different computer systems to communicate with one another and carry out electronic transactions. This process of EDI helps to streamline the process of invoicing, billing and allows transactional processes between businesses to become paperless. EDI is employed by numerous large companies and helps drive down retail prices through streamlined administrative costs between businesses.
By 1979 the technology infrastructure had improved drastically. The technology to allow for the transfer of information and processing of transactions on a B2C level would be introduced. Michael Adlrich created a teleshopping experience in the United Kingdom whereby a television connected to the internet and could process transactions. This development was a phenomenal advancement for technology, but it wouldn’t be until the advent and affordability of the PC that B2C ecommerce would become a commercially viable reality.
Two years later, in 1981, Thomson Holidays would submit the first successful B2B transaction. By 1984 Gateshead SIS/Tesco would create the first B2C consumer shopping experience online. By 1985 the automotive industry had progressed to the point where Nissan was selling cars and finance through online credit checks. Other notable events in the 1980s include the creation of the first online merchant accounts by SWREG and the use of the PC by Peapod in order to bring the grocery industry online.
These developments represented phenomenal advancements in technology, but it wouldn’t be until the advent and affordability of the PC that B2C ecommerce would become a commercially viable reality.
Acceleration
The 1990’s saw a huge rise in the use of the internet by American adults. From the time that Tim Berners-Lee creates the first WWW to the year 2000 countless companies would rise and fall. There were fortunes won and lost due to the internet and the ensuing technology bubble at the turn of the new millennium. The 1990’s were an exciting time for the internet, yet it is strange to think back on the fact that it wasn’t even until 1991 that the National Science Foundation lifted its ban on the commercial use of the net. It was this action that helped pave the way for the next 25 years of growth and online innovation.
It is worth noting the publishing of the book “Future Shop: How New Technologies will change the way we shop and what we buy” by J.H. Snider and Terra Ziporyn in 1992. This book is important in its foresight into the coming B2C ecommerce wave at the outset of the commercialization of the internet.
In 1994, Netscape unveiled the SSL certificate, which is an essential piece of encryption for providing a way to execute secure transactions online. This was also the year of the opening of many third party merchant services for processing credit cards and the opening of the first online bank.
One year later, we saw Amazon begin to start selling everything online and the seeds of the company that would become eBay also launched.
By the year 2000, Google, Amazon, Yahoo, Ebay, Victoria’s Secret, Zappos and Paypal would all be players in the online ecommerce space. The names we still know and use today.
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