2019 will mark 50 years of electronic commerce (e-commerce) via the internet, which emerged in 1969. E-commerce, it is worth remembering, is the marketing of products and services through electronic equipment.
But what would have been the first “e-commerce” type sale on the internet? Could you tell? And how has e-commerce evolved since then? Keep reading and stay in the loop!
Access and read the article " Definition of e-commerce " as well. Discover, in this way, that e-commerce also exists outside the internet.
50 YEARS OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE ON THE INTERNET: CONSTANT EVOLUTION
In this year 2019, both the internet and e-commerce complete 50 years. Discover below some of the milestones in the evolution of this type of commerce:
First online purchase intent:
According to an article published on the EXAME website , between the late 1960s and early 1970s, only a few American universities had access to Arpanet. It was through this communication network that Stanford students expressed interest in buying an illicit product from MIT students. This was the first attempt at purchase on this e-commerce network, from which the internet as we know it today originated.
First marketplace:
Believe me, the marketplace was born before the virtual store. According to a report by E-commerce Brasil, the Electronic Mall was launched by CompuServe, in the USA, in 1984. A decade later, this platform had 185 registered stores. Users had to buy software and install it on the desktop to be able to shop from an online catalog. The first purchases on the internet may have occurred from this system. Check out:
First secure online transaction:
The first secure online purchase would have taken place on the Netmarket website, launched in 1994. In August of that year, a man named Phil Brandenberger bought a Sting CD and paid for it with a credit card. Sensitive data was encrypted. Until then, there was no secure way to transmit credit card data over the internet. Learn more about it in the video below:
First online stores:
Netmarket would open the door for the launch of the first virtual stores. In 1995, for example, Amazon would launch one, where it would sell books. In Brazil, Magazine Luiza and Brasoftware would have done the same more or less in the same period.
First e-commerce platforms:
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, e-commerce platforms, systems for developing and managing online stores, began to emerge. VTEX , founded in 1999, for example, followed this path and is now one of the largest in the world in the sector. The company has a base of more than 2.500 clients in different countries. Companies such as Sony, Coca-Cola, Disney, and Ambev have online stores built with VTEX technology.
First omnichannel stores:
At the beginning of online retail, a virtual store was not integrated with physical stores or other sales channels of the same brand. However, that began to change in 2003 when Best Buy reportedly used a customer-focused, after-sales approach to outperform Walmart. Since then, companies have struggled to integrate their inventories and thus provide a personalized experience to customers in any sales channel.
First mobile first stores:
With the development of mobile technologies, many companies have started using the mobile-first concept in creating their online stores. Within this concept, online stores are created with a focus on use in mobile technologies. This trend originated in 2009 and intensified in the 2010s. In 2015, for example, Brastemp launched a mobile-first store.
Access and read the post " E-commerce " as well. Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of opening an online store!
WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN THE NEXT 50 YEARS OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE?
We can't guess what will happen in the next 50 years of e-commerce, but we can take a guess. There is a trend in online and offline commerce to become more and more omnichannel. From this optimization, U-commerce can be born.
U-commerce (short for Ubiquitous Commerce) is a futuristic term that current omnichannel e-commerce businesses seem to be moving towards.
In U-commerce, sales will be made according to four parameters, they are:
1 – Ubiquitous (connection from anywhere, at any time);
2 – Unique (customization according to each consumer);
3 – Universal (devices, clothes, things, everything can connect and become a sales channel);
4 – Unison (connected devices exchange and complement consumer data in order to improve the shopping experience).
As can be seen, U-commerce is the application of the concepts of omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence to commerce. In this way, consumers will be able to fulfill their desires from anywhere, at any time and in a personalized way. What a dream, huh?
Access and read the article " Everywhere commerce " as well. This way, you can learn about a type of omnichannel commerce that is rapidly evolving worldwide.
