| History of E-Commerce |
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The transaction of goods and services online by businesses and consumers is called e-Commerce. It can be divided into three sub-categories: 1. B 2 B - Business to Business After the success of the initial Public Offerings of websites like Yahoo, Amazon and Netscape, everybody wanted to start an internet business. More and more people were encouraged to start online businesses because of the encouragement of the venture capitalists, who agreed to pay the start-up money for almost everyone. At first, the objective of most of these e-Commerce companies was to start up a new internet business, and publicize it appropriately so as to draw large amounts of traffic. In this way, when these e-Commerce websites would be put up for sale, a lot of investors would be willingly to invest their money in these websites. During this period, nearly all the e-Commerce companies raised lots of money. However, during the time, a lot of money changed hands within the internet industry. The big flow of money made these internet companies attractive to online investors. However, some of the big companies, in spite of being able to sell their products and services successfully, were unable to deliver them on time, and were having other communication problems with their customers and suppliers. These companies were so carried away by the initial success that they forgot to apply certain business fundamentals to their operation. The situation is very different at present. Most of the companies that had been supported by VC money are now more or less extinct. According to estimates 55% online businesses have now closed. Since so many e-Commerce websites were exchanging money between each other, the recession hit all of them at once. Only businesses which operated with no debt, and reaped considerable profits are still functioning online, and are likely to survive the fallout. What the failed e-Commerce companies needed to learn was that business must apply certain basic fundamentals in order to survive. Instead of concentrating solely on the amount of money made by these e-Commerce companies, perhaps it would have done them a world of good, had they focused on other aspects of business like promotion and web development, customer care, technical support, timely delivery of products, etc. It is also a wise decision in these cases to consult reliable e-Commerce web development and design company professionals for valuable advice. |