Buyers Meet Sellers Online - The Digital Auction Begins

Although it may seem like it sometimes, the phenomenon of e-commerce did not actually spring up overnight.  Many of the things that we now take for granted -- conveniences such as shopping carts and one-click ordering, readily accessible services such as PayPal, and a smorgasbord of online sellers to choose from -- evolved through trial and error.  In just a little over a decade, online shopping has changed the concept of commerce, for the owners of online stores as well as for the customers. Online stores have come a long ways from the mid 1990s, when major companies such as Amazon and eBay entered the playing field. E-commerce didn’t develop into this miracle overnight. Rather, it took years of visionary programmers and enterprising entrepreneurs to bring us the world of online shopping that we know today.

You will notice that all three of these early e-commerce sites represent very different types of online commerce.  Amazon.com follows more of a traditional store format, with set prices and one major seller, although small-time sellers can also now sell their wares on Amazon’s product pages. eBay provides regulation and a meeting space for buyers and sellers to come together, with most sales taking place in an auction format. Craigslist is the least involved, offering little more than a community message board where people can buy and sell directly from one another.