The term e-commerce was originally conceived to describe the process of conducting business transactions electronically using technology from the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). These technologies, which first appeared in the late 1970’s, allowed for the exchange of information and the execution of electronic transactions between businesses, typically in the form of electronic purchase orders and invoices. EDI and EFT were the enabling technologies that laid the groundwork for what we now know as e-commerce. The Boston Computer Exchange, a marketplace for used computer equipment started in 1982, was one of the first known examples of e-commerce. Throughout the 1980’s, the proliferation of credit cards, ATM machines and telephone banking was the next step in the evolution of electronic commerce. Starting in the early 90’s, e-commerce would also include things such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), data warehousing and data mining.
It wasn’t until 1994 that e-commerce (as we know it today) really began to accelerate with the introduction of security protocols and high speed internet connections such as DSL, allowing for much faster connection speeds and faster online transaction capability. Industry “experts” predicted explosive growth in e-commerce related businesses.