E-Commerce: Its Development and Future Perspectives

E-commerce has become very vital for many businesses to reach out to larger markets at cheaper costs unlike before. It relies on the cyberspace as its main backbone. A lot of people can now make instant payments for items bought online from the comfort of their living rooms or offices. It is also now possible for millions of people from across the world to work online and receive their payments courtesy of e-commerce.
E-commerce was not so much known about in the last few years. However, growth in technology has revolutionized it in modern times. The advent of World Wide Web (WWW) from the early 1990s has been one of the major forces behind the advancements in e-commerce. Governments and private sector are investing in e-commerce as one of the ways of surviving competition and increasing economic growth. E-commerce is currently facilitating transactions between businesses and consumers (B2C). On the other hand, it has also become vital in business to business trading (B2B).
The advent modern forms of e-commerce occurred in 1949 when Diners Club launched credit cards for its frequent customers as way of consolidating debts. Meanwhile, the most immediate technological innovations that precipitate advent of today’s e-commerce infrastructure include use of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), availability of affordable computer hardware and software as well as increasing profitability of Internet Service Providers (ISPs). EID refers to transmission of business data within organizational networks in standard formats that favor transactions between businesses and clients. EDI has been an important milestone in the development of e-commerce in the sense that it paved way for the recent developments in e-commerce. Some of the contempo...

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...ctives in improving online trading. Regulatory authorities thus need to build clearer regulations to streamline e-commerce. There is also a need to create more effective B2C bandwidth to reduce technical barriers in e-commerce that might discourage people from online shopping. Future developments in e-commerce also need to address issues of effective protection of consumers’ privacy in the cyberspace.
In conclusion, it is worthy to note that e-commerce has become a major driving force in globalization of trade. It has also given online vendors opportunities of reaching many clients across the globe. However, issue of many risks like fraud, stealing of customers’ confidential information continues to affect e-commerce. Developers of the infrastructures that facilitate online business thus need to address risks issues as many people continue to adopt online trading.