E Commerce has been existing since years now, even before the Internet started back in 60’s. The very first step of e commerce was when businesses started exchanging their information and files with each other electronically.

With the help of internet people were able to electronically trade goods and services from traders and each other, all these transactions come under e commerce.

Business to Business electronic trading of exchanging money and files among businesses is called e commerce, as mentioned above this began in 1960’s. This got a good grip in the 80’s, when a particular pattern and standard was established for the electronic transactions that opened opportunity for all businesses to get connected.

When a person goes online and exchanges services and goods with another person, this type of transaction is called consumer-to-consumer e commerce. For e.g. Ebay is one of the real time consumer-to-consumer site, in this anyone can put up their goods for auctioning for the visitor of the site.

Peer-to-peer e commerce came into existence when Napster started offering free music downloads through a file sharing system. Today there are various sites and computer programs that work on the same model, where the users can share files with each other.

Business-to-consumer e commerce is when the consumer make a purchase of goods or services from online businesses. In the recent years due to the wide usage and popularity of the internet, e commerce has become a multibillion dollar sector that is only expected to grow.

Benefits of e-commerce for Consumers

The preface of the e commerce benefits has the ability to compare shop from home. One does not have to fight in crowds, stand in line or pay for gas to buy nearly anything that you could imagine today.

Based on the products or services the shopper browses or through the previous purchases, the websites provide customized recommendations to the shopper. This is secure, convenient and hassle free, instead of driving from one store to another.

Without mentioning the drawbacks no e commerce introduction will be considered as complete. Few people are not sure about the idea of online purchase, either because of lack of awareness on how to do it or they do not trust that the credit card information will be held safe.

A lot of times people are unfamiliar about the store, they suspect whether they will ever receive the items purchased, and on the other hand some people enjoy browsing through the shops with friends and family for a day. Where the consumers want to see and touch the products before purchasing for e.g. furniture, don’t experience more online sales.

More people will be comfortable with online shopping, once the internet popularity increases and the society’s familiarity with everything increase. Sales will continue to increase, as and when more people get introduced to e commerce through their friends and even children.