E-commerce is a new term, not a brand-new thing. Nowadays, e-commerce in society refers to business activities carried out under the network environment, especially on the Internet. E-commerce in a broad sense refers to a way for people to engage in business activities through electronic means. Its purpose is to complete the transaction processing in the business process through electronic data information, and connect enterprises, consumers and other related social groups through electronic exchange of goods and service information. From this concept, when 1839 first appeared, people began to use electronic means to engage in business activities. With the application of telephone, fax and other tools, modern commerce has been closely linked with electronic technology. However, the real research and application of e-commerce in the world began in the late 1970s. The development of e-commerce can be divided into two stages, namely, EDI e-commerce started in the mid-1980s and Internet e-commerce started in the early 1990s.
As early as the end of 1970s, EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) and EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer) appeared as the rudiments of inter-enterprise e-commerce application systems, and practical EDI commerce developed greatly in 1980s. EDI e-commerce is mainly realized through value-added network (VAN). Through the EDI network, both parties to the transaction can transmit message data such as inquiry, quotation, purchase order, receipt notice, consignment note, insurance policy, transfer invoice and so on in their respective computer systems in a specified standard format. In 1990s, EDI e-commerce technology has been very mature. The application of EDI enables enterprises to realize "paperless trade", greatly improves work efficiency, reduces transaction costs, reduces losses caused by mistakes, and strengthens the cooperative relationship between trading partners, so it has been widely used in international trade, customs business and finance. Many banks, airlines and large enterprises have established their own EDI systems, and even put forward in the trade circle that "no EDI, no orders!" "EDI triggered a revolution in the field of trade!" Wait for the slogan. However, the solutions of EDI e-commerce are all based on a large number of special software and hardware facilities with single function. At that time, the limitations of network technology limited the expansion of EDI application. At the same time, EDI requires high technology, equipment and personnel, and the use price is extremely expensive. Restricted by these factors, EDI e-commerce has only been applied in advanced countries and regions and large enterprises, but has not been widely popularized and developed around the world, so it is difficult for most small and medium-sized enterprises to use EDI to carry out e-commerce activities.
With the vigorous development of Internet and computer network technology, networking and globalization have become an irresistible world trend. It has formed an electronic information channel, which is affordable for the whole family and connects the whole world. The application of Internet in e-commerce business has also begun to meet the realistic conditions, and the time is ripe for the leap-forward development of e-commerce. In the early 1990s, computer network technology made a breakthrough, and Internet-based e-commerce technology came into being. Internet e-commerce is a brand-new business model, which is mainly based on the rapidly developing internet network around the world, with both parties as the main body, bank payment and settlement as the means and customer database as the basis. It uses the network environment of the Internet to conduct fast and effective business activities, from simply publishing and transmitting information on the Internet to establishing a business information center on the Internet. From immature e-commerce transactions conducted by some means of traditional trade to e-commerce virtual market that can complete all business processes of supply, production and sales online; From the closed bank e-finance system to the open network e-banking, e-commerce activities on the Internet have brought great benefits for enterprises to increase output value, reduce costs and create business opportunities. In addition to the development of the Internet, information technology has also developed in an all-round way, such as network security and management technology, system and application software technology tends to be perfect. All these have laid the foundation for the development and application of Internet e-commerce.
E-commerce on the Internet has attracted attention because it has different characteristics from other ways and has attractive development prospects. It can enable enterprises to engage in businesses that cannot be engaged in the physical environment, help reduce the cost of enterprises and improve their competitiveness. Especially for all kinds of enterprises, regardless of the size, regardless of "high or low", it provides a broad development world and business opportunities to help them save costs, increase value, expand markets, improve efficiency and seize customers. Small and medium-sized enterprises can enter the international market and compete at lower cost. At the same time, it can increase more consumption choices for the vast number of online consumers and let consumers get more benefits. E-commerce is also a revolution, which breaks the time and space constraints, changes the form of trade, and makes the Internet an important carrier for business transmission, information collection, new business generation and new income generation. Enable enterprises to conduct chain transactions; E-commerce can gradually improve the adaptive navigation function of enterprises. Enterprises can exchange information through online search, making business contacts personalized and dynamic, thus winning the welcome of users and gaining benefits. According to Forrester Research, by 2002, e-commerce among global enterprises will increase 40 times. By then, the amount of trade conducted through the Internet will increase from the current $8 billion to $327 billion, and the development of e-commerce will become the most critical in Internet applications.
Another profound background of the rapid rise of e-commerce on the Internet is that the explosive development of the Internet has promoted the wider application of information technology, and the fierce global competition caused by it requires enterprises to have greater flexibility than their competitors to cope with the changes in business needs, improve the return on investment, speed up the time to market for new products, optimize prices, timely delivery and better after-sales service. In order to meet the needs of new market development, the business model of global enterprises is facing new challenges, and enterprises must adjust their own business methods and industrial structure in order to gain a foothold in the market competition of survival of the fittest. Therefore, the application of e-commerce has become the key technology for enterprises to defeat the enemy in shopping malls. It has won more and more global Internet users, and the number of networks accessing the Internet has exceeded more and more customers. The traditional business activities of enterprises have entered a new era of e-commerce. The e-commerce software products and solutions actively launched by major IT vendors around the world make people more and more clearly see the advantages and practical application value of e-commerce. At present, e-commerce on the Internet has been recognized as the development direction of modern commerce, which is a market with great development potential and attractive development prospects. According to the statistics of Internet Society, 1997 has 2 million kinds of e-commerce products, and the global e-commerce transaction volume has reached 2.6 billion US dollars. By the end of 1999, the number of Internet users exceeded 1 100 million, and the transaction activities realized through the Internet reached 43 billion US dollars. It is estimated that by 2000, the global e-commerce transaction volume will reach 654.38+056 billion US dollars, by 2002, the global Internet users will reach 320 million, and the global e-commerce transaction volume will reach 327 billion US dollars. By 2003, the global e-commerce transaction volume will soar to more than $65,438+0.5 trillion. As a brand-new business transaction mode, e-commerce has become the most critical driving force to promote future economic growth. Therefore, a huge e-commerce market has been formed worldwide. In Asia, the transaction volume of e-commerce has exceeded $3 billion by the end of 1999, and it is still growing rapidly. The complete two-way information exchange, flexible trading means and fast delivery mode in e-commerce market will bring great economic benefits to people and promote the great improvement of social productivity. The widespread implementation of e-commerce has greatly accelerated the circulation of goods in the whole society, especially enabling small and medium-sized enterprises to enter the international market and participate in competition at a lower cost. E-commerce also provides consumers with more consumption choices, so that consumers get more benefits. The figure shows the growth of e-commerce transactions conducted by authoritative international consulting companies on the Internet.
In recent years, governments around the world and international organizations have put forward a series of documents to promote the development of e-commerce. 1In June 1996, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law put forward a model blueprint for e-commerce, which provided a model for e-commerce legislation in various countries. 1997 17 On April 5th, the EU put forward the EU E-commerce Action Plan, which stipulated the principles of action in information infrastructure, management framework and business environment, so as to promote the development of e-commerce in Europe and enhance the global competitiveness of the EU. To this end, the EU has formulated a series of regulatory documents and directives on network opening, equal access, intellectual property protection and security certification. 1 July, 19971July, 1997, the U.S government published the document "Global E-commerce Framework", and put forward the basic principles, methods and measures for developing e-commerce. The Clinton administration also compared the influence of the Internet with the industrial revolution 200 years ago. 1February 5, 997, the United States and the European Union jointly issued a joint declaration on e-commerce, and reached an agreement on the relevant principles of e-commerce. The United States is also negotiating with Japan on e-commerce. All these show that in order to create an e-commerce framework suitable for international media, governments and international organizations are actively negotiating and exploring.
Second, the status quo of e-commerce
Number of Internet users
The number of netizens shows the popularity of e-commerce market, and the soaring number of netizens shows the solid social foundation for the development of e-commerce market. From 1980 to 1998, the number of internet users in the world has reached113 million. It is estimated that by 2005, one fifth of the world's population, or 654.38 billion people, will use the Internet. So many users have laid a good mass foundation for the extensive development and application of e-commerce market. Judging from the situation of various countries, the United States has the largest number of Internet users, about 70.5 million 1998, followed by Japan, and the number of Internet users reached13.85 million in February. 1997, the number of Internet users in Germany and Britain both exceeded 4 million, making it the largest Internet market in Western Europe. From the domestic situation, Internet users have also developed rapidly. 1In June 1996, the number of netizens was about1170,000, but by the end of February 1998, the number of netizens had reached 2 10/00,000. It is estimated that by 2002, the number of Internet users in China will reach 2 1 10,000. According to the data, netizens in China are not only young men, but also many female netizens. Recently, the first Miss China Network Grand Prix was successfully held in China. According to statistics, by the end of 1999, the number of netizens in China had reached 600,000.
(2) Websites and hosts on the Internet
As early as 1994, the Internet has covered 150 countries and regions around the world, connecting more than 30,000 subnets, more than 3.2 million computer hosts and more than 35 million direct users, making it the largest computer network in the world. According to the survey of the European Commission, the number of hosts connected to the Internet in EU countries will increase from140,000 in 1997 to 58 million in 2006. At present, there are more than 25 million hosts connected to the Internet all over the world. From the domestic situation, at the end of 1996, there were only 24,000 networked computers in China, 1997, 10, 3 1, and the number of networked computers in China increased to 299,000. 1June 1998, the number of networked computers in China reached 542,000.
On the other hand, many information service websites have mushroomed on the Internet in recent years. At present, according to statistics, there are more than 3,500 influential websites in the world, and almost every website can provide e-commerce information and services. Excellent international and domestic information search websites such as Yahoo, Infoseek, Excite, Sohu, Netease, Shanghai Hotline have emerged in succession, laying a very good foundation for the development of e-commerce.
(3) the transaction volume of e-commerce market
The change of e-commerce transaction volume can directly reflect the development and present situation of e-commerce. According to statistics, from 65438 to 0995, the global sales realized through Internet network was only 500 million dollars. In 1996, the global commercial sales through the Internet soared to $2.6 billion. In 1998, the commercial sales through the Internet reached $43 billion, and will increase to 186 billion in 2000. According to the data, the amount of Internet direct e-commerce in the United States was only about 350 million in 1995, increased to 800 million dollars in 1996, and increased to 2 billion dollars by the end of 1997. In Europe, by 200 1 year, the profit of online transactions will increase from197 to $3 billion. Therefore, e-commerce is not only a rapidly developing new market, but also a new form that may replace traditional business activities. It may completely change the nature of trade activities, break the traditional marketing methods and form a brand-new framework of trade activities. 1998, the per capita consumption in the United States was about $3 16, and in Britain, there were10 million people shopping at home through the Internet. The average cost of these consumers shopping online is 40 pounds (about 66 dollars) per person per month. In the Asia-Pacific region, e-commerce in Japan, Singapore, South Korea, China, Taiwan Province Province and Hongkong has developed very rapidly, and the development of e-commerce is quietly changing the competitiveness and market structure of various industries. It has gained a larger market share from traditional commerce, and its trade scope has involved many countries in Southeast Asia, and the number of participating manufacturers and retail stores is also increasing.
Third, the development trend of e-commerce
(A) the development prospects of e-commerce market
In developed countries, the development of e-commerce is very rapid, and trading through the Internet has become a trend. The rapid development of e-commerce is or will change many people's daily life and work patterns. It is predicted that by 2005, the crowded shopping crowd in commercial streets will be replaced by the busy shopping information flow on the Internet.
Some experts predict that by 2002, there will be 654.38 billion computers and 654.38+000 large-scale networks connected to the Internet, and the number of Internet users will increase to 554.38 billion. With the continuous improvement of security technology, the e-commerce market on the Internet will develop into "the widest, deepest, fastest and safest market in the world, and the transaction volume of shopping and services realized on the Internet will not be less than $65,438+0 trillion." It is estimated that the development speed of e-commerce will be amazing in the next decade. From 65438 to 0995, online shopping in the United States was only $350 million, and by 2002, this figure had reached $300 billion. A conservative estimate is given: it is predicted that the commercial sales realized through the Internet will increase to 50 billion dollars, 90 billion dollars and 654.38+02 billion dollars respectively in 654.38+099, 2000 and 2006.54 38+0 years. By 2003, the total amount of Internet interbank transactions may exceed $350 billion, and by 2005, this figure may reach $800 billion.
China's e-commerce activities have not been carried out for a long time, but the development trend is very good. China Municipal Government and relevant authorities have attached great importance to and actively supported e-commerce. At present, about 50% of the 65,438+5,000 state-owned large and medium-sized enterprises in China are connected to the Internet, some of which have their own homepages and WWW servers, and some enterprises with import and export rights can skillfully carry out international e-commerce business. At the same time, with the vigorous development of computer network technology in China in recent years, a large number of high-tech information management talents have been trained and brought up, which are favorable conditions and guarantees for promoting e-commerce in China. On March 6th, 1998, the first online e-commerce transaction in China was successful. 1In July, 1999, an enterprise in Zhejiang Province successfully purchased equipment and materials worth $2 million through online payment. According to reports, the first regional and public website in China-launched at 1997, with daily visits at 1999+0 1 which has exceeded 200,000. The new IC card connected with eight banks in Shanghai was issued in February199965438+,and the unified payment gateway for e-commerce in Shanghai has also been built. Shanghai's e-commerce payment outlets are officially put into operation, when online consumers can use IC cards to complete the whole process of online shopping at home. At present, more and more enterprise decision makers have put the next development direction and focus on e-commerce.
Anything new represents a trend, and the trend that conforms to human progress is bound to be recognized by everyone. E-commerce is such a thing, which is transforming human society in an all-round way, changing the way of human interaction such as enterprise competition, government departments, public research institutions, education and entertainment, and showing people a brand-new and ideal world. So the future development prospect of e-commerce is very optimistic. With the further development of the Internet, e-commerce will surely become a new mode for people all over the world to conduct business activities. The types of goods in the e-commerce market will also be rich and colorful, except flowers, books, CDs, tourism, electronic brokers, computer software and hardware, etc. These companies have gained a firm foothold in the e-commerce market and made huge profits. With the entry of various industries into the e-commerce market, people will find almost all the goods they need online, such as the sale of cars on the Internet, which has shown its considerable potential. The application of information technology and related e-commerce has promoted the economic and social development of China in many aspects. E-commerce has come to us. With the large-scale popularization of Internet in China, accelerating and vigorously developing e-commerce in China will be a real opportunity for China enterprises to surpass the world in the next century.
(B) the development trend of e-commerce
1. Faster operation.
The response speed of network is an important parameter to measure the service quality of ISP. Information retrieval and electronic transactions on the Internet also need rapid response. With the increasingly developed and perfect information network environment platform, the rapid development of e-commerce requires stronger demand and faster action. Personalization of business communication, online shopping and multifunction are the development trends of e-commerce.
2. Personalization of business contacts
With the increasing diversification of users' needs, how to meet customers' personalized needs is an important topic faced by modern enterprises, and it is also a very difficult problem. This rapidly changing demand poses a severe challenge to the production process of enterprises, and requires the production process of enterprises to be flexible enough. E-commerce can solve this problem well, because the part between enterprises and customers in e-commerce caters to this point.
E-shopping is developing in depth.
Imagine that you can buy what you want at home without leaving home. Is it convenient? E-commerce provides the possibility of shopping at home. You only need an electronic fund account (credit card) approved by the merchant, and you can choose anything you like from many online stores without running around.
Compared with the traditional trading system, e-commerce system has significantly different characteristics in shopping channels. Browsing the traditional trading shopping channels often means groping in a wide range of unrelated shops or searching through the "commodity list information table"; In the modern e-commerce system, shops are ubiquitous and interrelated, with the characteristics of interactivity and intelligence. On the other hand, the modern e-commerce market closely combines the information of products and services to help buyers compare among different stores to choose the most attractive goods.
4。 Support the whole process of the enterprise
E-commerce can cover the whole process from identifying user needs, internal product development, production, inspection, marketing, user sending orders, tracking delivery, receiving bills and updating data, user surveys, product development and improvement of enterprises, and supporting e-commerce. And e-commerce makes enterprises closer to their own markets and see more clearly.