Inglese - Tesina su E-commerce

DEFINITION

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, is the use of electronic

systems such as the Internet and other computer networks to buy and sell

products and services on various websites and/or online marketplaces.

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The idea of electronic commerce contains also technologies such as mobile

commerce, electronic funds transfer and Internet marketing. It concerns

electronic catalogues, advices to customers, the real-time management of

products availability, online payment and services after sales. We can exploit

this mean of purchase through modern technologies like e-mail (for example,

with newsletter), mobile devices (so smartphones and tablets with special

applications) and social media.

Companies, which broke into the e-commerce business, can be ranked into

three classes:

Pure-Click or Pureplay companies are those that have launched a website

1. without any previous existence as a firm;

Bricks-and-Clicks companies are those existing companies that have

2. added an online site for e-commerce;

Click-to-Brick are online retailers that later open physical locations.

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HISTORY OF E-COMMERCE

Nowadays living without e-commerce seems to be impossible, complicated and

inconvenient, but before a few decades ago this idea didn’t exist yet.

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E-commerce was introduced 40 years ago and it continues to grow with new

technologies, innovations and thousands of businesses entering the online

market each year.

In the Seventies, Michael Aldrich, an English inventor, developed the

predecessor of online shopping. He had the idea to hook a television to their

supermarket to deliver the groceries. His idea had been quickly planned and

implemented.

In 1979 Aldrich connected a television set to a transaction processing computer

with a telephone line and created what he called “teleshopping,” meaning

shopping at a distance.

In 1982, France launched the precursor of the Internet, called Minitel, which

was a terminal machine that worked through telephone lines. The Minitel was

free to telephone subscribers and connected millions of users to a computing

network.

The Minitel system slowly disappeared after the success of the Internet and the

World Wide Web in the Nineties.

A lot of enterprises understood that Internet could give big opportunities and so

they thought to exploit it for their businesses. Therefore online shopping has

risen and developed.

However, from the beginning, there were many hesitations and concerns with

online shopping but the development of a security certificate in 1994 provided

a safe means to transmit data over the Internet.

In the 2000’s the largest online retailer in the world is Amazon, launched in

1995 as an online bookstore. Currently, Amazon offers not only books but also

DVDs, CDs, MP3 downloads, computer software, video games, food and toys. A

characteristic of Amazon’s website is the user review that includes a rating

scale to rate a product. Customer reviews are now considered the most

effective social media tactic for driving sales. In 2001, Amazon.com launched

its first mobile commerce site.

Another success story was that of EBay, an online auction site that debuted in

1995.

In 1995 there was also the beginning of Yahoo followed by Google in 1998, two

leading search engines in the US. These successful web directories began their

own ecommerce with Google Shopping and Yahoo Auction, in following years.

When more and more people began doing business online, they felt the need

for secure communication and transactions. PayPal is a safe service for

payments and funds transfers. It began its services in 1998 and currently

operates in 190 markets. The company is an online bank that performs

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payment processing for online sellers, auction sites and other commercial

users. They allow their customers to send, receive and hold funds in 24

currencies worldwide.

In 2004 an organization was created for the development and implementation

of security standards for account data protection.

The growing use of the Internet, tablets and smartphones leads to larger

consumer confidence. This shows that e-commerce will continue to evolve and

expand.

Also with the growth and evolution of social medias in recent years, the

conversation between businesses and consumers has become easier.

With mobile commerce, even if it has just developed, more and more users are

purchasing from their smartphones or tablets.

GLOBAL TRENDS IN 2013

Today e-commerce is growing much faster than the others sales: according to

IBM, in 2013 in-store sales grew only 3,7%, while e-commerce sales

experienced a 20% growth. If we focused on mobile e-commerce, the growth is

even bigger: 31% in 2013.

In 2013 people spent $1.2 trillion online, with Asia Pacific becoming the number

one market, followed by North America and Europe.

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The USA is the world leader for what concerns e-commerce: American people

spent $384 billion in online sales in 2013 and they had the biggest average

sale per buyer. China takes the second place with $181 billion and the UK ranks

third with $141 billion spent in digital sales.

According to Emarketer research, the average order value also depends on the

device used for shopping: people spend more with their smartphones, followed

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