Every Tuesday, the Volusion team will be posting quick educational videos to help you further succeed online. Watch and subscribe at www.youtube.com/volusion. Today’s episode covers the basic question of, “What is ecommerce?”
If it’s the second day of the work week, it must be time for Two Minute Tuesdays. This video series is intended to help you learn more about ecommerce and how to effectively sell online. Today’s episode answers the question on many users’ minds – “What is ecommerce?” While we all think we know what our industry is all about, take a look at this short video to learn more, including the definition of ecommerce, its brief history, were the industry stands today and in the future.
If you have any questions or topics for us to cover, shoot me an email at matthew_winn(at)volusion(dot)com. Happy selling!
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Video Transcript:
Hi everybody! My name is Matt and I’m a Marketing Associate here at Volusion. Welcome to Two Minute Tuesdays, where we give you two minutes of ecommerce information to bolster your online success. Today we’re going to answer the age old question, “What is ecommerce?”
Ecommerce is a short term for electronic commerce. This handles all sorts of things including product research and the exchange of business documents over the internet, but for our purposes it really boils down to the buying and selling of goods online. So product research, information sharing, and things of that sort – yes all a part of ecommerce, but ultimately that leads to the ultimate goal of buying and selling online. Of course that’s where you, the business owner, steps in.
The history of ecommerce is short but rather impressive. It actually dates back to the 1970s when the first business document was sent over an electronic wire. But really, as opposed to our definition, it started in the early 1990s.This is when the world wide web came to surface and when the US Government passed legislation in 1991 to lead for the passage of credit card information online. Ecommerce laid dormant for awhile, but in 1995 the legendary Ebay and Amazon both came into play. Once people became more assimilated to online shopping, it boomed to where we are today.
Speaking of which, as of 2010, the ecommerce industry is in fantastic shape. As a matter of fact, between 2009 and 2010, forecasters project that it’s going to grow by another 7%. This puts us at about a $180 billion industry right now. Why is this? Well, of course, there are all sorts of products out there and people are becoming more and more comfortable with widespread internet access.
So leading into the future, by 2014, Forrester Research projects that we’ll have another 66% of growth. This will lead to a $255 billion industry. Why is this? Again, worldwide acceptance of the internet, more products online, more security and more data control – all sorts of factors. What that means is, get into the game now.
If you have any questions about how to sell online, we’re definitely here to help. From me to you, happy selling!
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