What is e-Commerce - History of e-Commerce - Type of e-Commerce.

What is E-Commerce? -

E-commerce (EC), an abbreviation for electronic commerce, is the buying and selling of goods and services or the transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the internet.

These business transactions occur either as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer or consumer-to-business.

The term e-tail is also sometimes used in reference to the transactional processes for online shopping.

History of E-Commerce -

The beginning of e-commerce can be traced to the 1960s, when businesses started using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to share business documents with other companies. 

In 1979, the American National Standards Institute develop ASC X12 as a universal standard for businesses to share documents through electronic networks. 

After the number of individual users sharing electronic documents with each other grew in the 1980s, the rise of eBay and Amazon in the 1990s revolutionized the e-commerce industry.

Basics of E-Commerce -

E-commerce refers to commercial transactions conducted online. This means that whenever you buy and sell something using the Internet, you're involved in e-commerce. 

Commerce on Internet or e-commerce refers to the purchase and sale of goods and/or services via electronic channels, such as the Internet. Online retail is convenient due to its 24-hour availability, global reach and ease of customer service.

Though purchasing items online is a major fact, e-commerce is more than that. This type of commerce can be useful at the enterprise level as well. E-commerce is not just on the Web - it was first introduced in the 1960s via electronic data interchange (EDI) through value-added networks (VANs). 

In the mid-1990s, e-commerce was transformed with the introduction of Amazon and eBay Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems and automated data collection systems.

Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at least one part of the transaction's life cycle, although it may also use other technologies such as e-mail.

Types of E-commerce Model -

There are four main types of e-commerce models that can describe almost every transaction that takes place between consumers and businesses.

B2B (Business to Business) - Now a day B2B service is very important and useful for business class. B2B is a kind of e-commerce in which companies doing business with each other for example manufacturers selling the product to wholesalers and wholesalers selling to retailers. 

B2C (Business to Consumer) - This is what most people think of when they hear "e-commerce". B2C consists of businesses selling to the general public through shopping cart software, without needing any human interaction. An example of this would be Amazon.com.

C2B (Consumer to Business) - In this system a consumer would post a project or a object with a set budget online, any individual or companies bid on the project. The consumer reviews the bids and selects suitable company according to his requirement.

C2C (Consumer to Consumer) - This type of e-commerce is made up of online classfieds or forums where individuals can buy and sell their goods, thanks to systems like PayPal. An example of this would be eBay or Olx.

E-commerce businesses may work some or all of the following:

• Online shopping web sites for retail sales direct to consumers. 
• Providing or participating in online marketplaces, which process third-party business-to-consumer or consumer-to-consumer sales. 
• Business-to-business buying and selling.

Example of E-commerce - 

E-commerce can take on a variety of form involving different transactional relationships between businesses and consumers, as well as different objects being exchanged as part of these transactions. 

1. Retail: This sale of a product by a business directly to a customer without any intermediary.
2. Wholesale: The sale of products in bulk, often to a retailer that then sells them directly to consumers. 
3. Drop-shipping: The sale of the product, which is manufactured and shipped to the consumer by a third party. 
4. Crowed-funding: The collection of money from consumers in advance of a product being available in order to raise the startup capital necessary to bring it to market.
5. Subscription: The automatic recurring purchase of a product or service on a regular basis untill the subscriber choose to cancel.
6. Physical products: Any tangible goods that requires inventory to be replenished and orders to be physically shipped to customers as sales are made.
7. Digital products: Downloadable digital goods, templetes and courses or media that must be purchased for consumption or licensed for use.
8. Service: A skill or set of skills provided in exchange for compensation. The service provider's time can be puchased for a fee.