Humans, in order to get essential and necessary goods back in ancient times on this planet earth for survival they used to get them through forests like different types of woods and fruits or leafs from trees and plants, different types of meats from animals, drinking water and fish from rivers and oceans etc and services from fellow humans and other living beings in certain activities to name few like help in work to hunt animals or planting seeds in farming agriculture land etc at first any products or services available in this world used to be totally free if you are capable enough to make or get them.
But, some percentage of humans due to whatever reasons unable to get certain products and services of many categories so they created barter system in which humans under mutual agreement can exchange thier products or services for another different products or services which has approx same value at that time it worked well in beginings and widely used around the world but later on a lot of humans found certain drawbacks in barter system like it is quite hard and not always possible to exchange products that are in same value even if you do still managing and maintaining them is difficult for sure.
So, after long time humans considered rare planet earth metals like gold and diamonds etc as value assets basically money so they started working to earn them and begin buying products and services from fellow humans which are widely used around the world for thousands of years even now but in modern governments era country named America introduced paper fiat currency as an alternative to gold which is quite easy to use so eventually almost all countries started printing and releasing their own paper based fiat currently with it’s own logo and value according to thier ideology and economy for it’s citizens due to that now fiat currency is in wide usage at local and international level globally.
Since, ancient times starting from barter system itself people to earn money setup different product offline stores of number of categories which were further increased when we got gold and diamonds and exponentially skyrocketed when we got hands on fiat currency at that time most offline store owners to make business in this competitive world used to import different types of products and services from own and foriegn countries using land via vehicles, sea via ships and air via airplanes etc due to that people were able to get almost all products and services near to them which are not even available in their area or country etc due to that now we have large number of mixed or separate local and international offline stores everywhere around the world and all of them are now part of retail industry.
Usually, companies and manufacturers either registered and licenced or not are primary makers of products who for profit add some extra price on total value of product then sell to retail stores who then add some more price on product and then sell to wholesalers who another time add some more price and sell to offline stores who once again add some more price and sell to customers with government and import taxes etc but at the end according to consumer laws around the world no one can sell any products more then MRP aka maximum retail price else they will face legal consequences due to that people mostly don’t overpay for products instead they get them at right price for sure.
But, some percentage of consumers and offline stores who want products for any reasons to reduce costs or to get more profits buy products from retailers over wholesalers including that to further reduce costs and get even more profits consumers, offline stores and wholesalers make contract and buy from companies and manufacturers who usually sell any products in large quantities due to that most consumers and offline stores even wholesalers can’t buy them unless they have huge demand and requirement with complete infrastructure and space to store and sell them which is why this flexible process : companies and manufacturers -> retailers -> wholesalers -> offline stores – > customers is widely used globally now.
In sense, Majority of offline stores and people don’t make products and do work services of any category instead they buy them but some people make products and do services themselves to reduce costs or any other personal reasons even alot of small offline stores in urban mainly in rural and tribal areas make and sell products and provide services themselves without depending on anyone so they get higher profits but in some scenarios it’s quite hard and difficult for certain percentage of people to make products and do services themselves so they purchase from offline stores even most small offline stores can’t make products and provide services in full and large scale due to that in most cases they depend on retailers or wholesalers and company manufacturers as they have big machines to make alot of products and thousands or millions of skilled workers to provide services worldwide easily.
Anyhow, most humans known as people in modern society long time back itself used to store thier money in home or secret places after that in government or private banks etc which store customers money in theft proof secure lockers that were designed and controlled by experts and managed by skilled employees mainly protected by trained and intellectual law enforcement agencies and on ground security guards due to that people got safe container to store their money so whenever people wanted money they used to withdraw some required amount from banks and then spend it on products and services accordingly based upon them.
Fortunately, In 17th century industrial revolutions begin when people to make business started establishing and working in huge factories around the world that changed lifestyle at that time people begin storing and exchanging money immensely due to that banks as per demand and time by mid 19th century not only immensely upgraded and improved it’s options and features but also introduced new ones like different types of bank accounts with local and international payment modes, cheque books, ATM aka any time money machines and credit and debit cards by parallelly improving security by using them people were able to withdraw and spend money around the world anywhere and anytime conveniently and comfortably.
PCs aka personal computers are electronic devices an evolution of computers entered into this world back in mid 19th century which are Integrated with CLI aka command line interface and GUI aka graphical user interface operating system basically software developed using various programming languages that can install more additional softwares which can execute any real life activities electronically if programmed correctly due to that to use them most people around the world eventually started using PCs.
When majority of people begin using PCs back in 1980s at that time banks around the world developed and released banking softwares with all features and options available in physical banks and ATMS for it’s existing and new customers due to that people were able to send and receive local and international payments globally using PCs itself including that in same timeline offline stores also developed and released shopping softwares where you can simply select and buy all available products and services etc and get them to your home or anywhere else by paying money through banking softwares or cash on delivery.
Even though, there are numerous revolutionary softwares available for PCs but in this context banking and shopping also known as electronic commerce softwares are important and they are quite inter-connected to each other for instance most e-commerce softwares used to rely on banking softwares and credit or debit cards to charge money for products or services ordered by customers and then upon successful electronic transaction of money they used to proceed further for verification and accountability.
Boston Computer Exchange and Minitel are early e-commerce softwares available for people back in 1980s which are very basic but the major upgrade and evolution for e-commerce softwares begin in 1990s when inventor Tim Berners Lee released revolutionary world’s 1st browser software named WWW aka world wide web for PCs that will open public contents of internet a standard protocol developed by ARPANET which provide unique address to computer and also move data on network at first it is used to send SMS between computers but later on many developers and companies timely by adapting to latest technologies upgraded and improved Internet protocol due to that now we have most advanced and powerful Internet protocol which is now available on all PCs worldwide.
Thankfully, In year 1991 inventor Tim Berners Lee using HTML aka hypertext markup language developed and released world first public website on Internet named CERN which is accessible through URL aka uniform resource locator after that in just few years alot of people around the the world using different languages created revolutionary websites and blogs and then by using their PC storage and memory created server to host them on Internet and access through world wide web browser isn’t cool and amazing?
Book Stacks Unlimited founded in year 1992 is considered as world’s first e-commerce online shopping website after that many developers and companies created their own online shopping websites out of them Amazon is one founded by Jeff Bezos in year 1995 on July 5 at first it used to sell books in america but later on it was quite big hit so eventually Amazon added more products and categories like electronics, music, toys, sports, kitchen utensils etc and then started shipping them internationally using courier services like FedEX.
Jeff Bezos changed and introduced many new aspects and features on e-commerce online shopping websites to name few he instead of buying products himself opened facility for anyone to register and partner with Amazon as sellers then add and sell thier products by shipping with thier own or any other third party couriers etc when someone make successful product order on Amazon it charge some fee as service charges this business model eventually driven Amazon to top e-commerce and leading website with thumping success.
+ The success story of Amazon – Jeff Bezos.
Especially, you may know it is quite hard and cost billions to construct and maintain offline stores every where in the world which is why Amazon smartly to reduce costs to maximum rented stores at best important centers known as hubs around the world then from there using thier own or third party local couriers used to ship products to customers which is the main reason why Amazon able to generate huge profits and this process is now used by almost all e-commerce companies.
However, In india back in early 20th century most people don’t know about Amazon or any other online e-commerce website as at that time majority of indian people don’t have PCs mainly in rural and tribals areas then later on even in 21st century most indian people are not aware of e-commerce websites as alot of them don’t own PCs or it’s alternative handheld smartphones even if they do still majority people didn’t like and prefer to buy from e-commerce websites mainly because back then most people in india used to don’t have credit and debit cards except some people who have corporate jobs including that in india alot of people used to don’t trust online shopping websites and they
prefer to physically go offline stores to check and buy products and services etc at that time indian entrepreneurs Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal on thier indian online shopping website Flipkart added and introduced COD aka cash on delivery option which eventually revolutionized india’s ecommerce industry.
Flipkart got super popularity mainly because of it’s cash on delivery facility and partnerships with brands like Motorola Inc to sell affordable smartphones like Moto E, G and X including that they used to sell products at shocking prices and offers via Big Billion Days but later on Flipkart failed due to business mistakes like switching to totally app based platform over website so it was selled out to Walmart a american retail store company who from long time want to enter in e-commerce industry.
+ Here’s why, Flipkart failed in india.
Walmart introduced many new useful and exciting features on Flipkart and revived it’s website with modern version that look and feel way better then old one but back then few years back Amazon inc. inspired by Flipkart added COD – cash on delivery facility on it’s platform since then Amazon dodging Flipkart become top e-commerce website in india which already has huge popularity around the world with availablity in more then 100 countries except Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Syria, Iran etc.
Anyway, now we have billions of e-commerce online shopping websites from small businesses to companies in india and around the world they mostly follow business model and process of Amazon inc. which are equipped and integrated with latest technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence who usually ship almost all category products and services either in same or later day but sometimes it will be delayed to weeks even months based on courier due to unavailability or other external factors like political and environment conditions etc.
Now a days, most e-commerce online shopping companies available around the world in majority of areas using thier skilled human employees to deliver products and services same day even 1 hour or 10 minutes with some extra charges on total amount but in future e-commerce online shopping companies may no more going to use humans to deliver products and services Instead they may probably use manual or automated artificial intelligence Integrated advanced and powerful robots, drones and flying cars etc as they are already in use and in
extensive test phases in some futuristic e-commerce companies so for sure they are going to be widely used in future.
Especially, now we’re in web 2.0 where websites data is stored in centralized cloud servers managed by one or multiple companies which are secure but not tamper proof that’s why they are prone to hacking that can cause data breach and leaks and can arise privacy theft and risks which is why from past few years Internet is upgrading to Web 3.0 over there data of websites and blogs data will be hosted on decentralized servers provided by companies or individuals like you thus they will never go down with censorship resistant and military grade security so in this process may e-commerce companies in future also use Web3 decentralized servers to host websites and softwares to provide best possible data security and privacy protection to their customers.
+ What is Web5 – upgrade of Web3 for decentralized identity and storage.
E-commerce companies also adding and Integrating support for VR aka Virtual reality and Augmented reality and Mixed reality technology headsets in which you have to put your smartphones then you can open up e-commerce websites where you can select and try products in virtual environment which feels like real that’s why numerous e-commerce companies already enabled them but availability is not in full scale will happen in next decade.
+ What is augmented and virtual reality? on PC and smartphones.
I expect every year e-commerce online shopping companies also add more categories and after few centuries people may build dedicated home or sky tunnels which are made up of technologies like hyperloop to quickly get any product or service in few minutes but there is long time to go until then every year e-commerce companies by adapting to new technologies accordingly develop and release most interesting and useful options and features for sure.
Finally, this is I believe will be future of e-commerce industry in india and around the world, are you an existing user of any local or global e-commerce online shopping platforms? If yes do say your experience and what do you think will happen to india global commerce industry in future kindly mention your views and opinions in our comment section below see ya 🙂