I.

Evolution of E-commerce

a. Introduction of Ecommerce
According to Bhalla, e-commerce is a form of business performed over the internet. It is
the buying and selling of goods and services, which is referred to as an electronic medium. Due
to its popularity over the years, it gave more people the chance of being an entrepreneur.
For this to be possible, e-commerce was first introduced in 1969 by Dr John R. Goltz and
Jeffrey Wilkins. In 1979, Michael Aldrich invented online shopping and was first done through a
modified television through a telephone connection. Few years after, there was a continuous
growth of the technology, which led to the launch of the first platform by the Boston Computer
Exchange. However, not until 1992 where the first online shopping site was created. This was
the creation of an online bookstore created by Charles M. Stack. Then came the more popular
e-commerce websites such as Amazon and ebay. After three years later, Paypal was invented for
online money transfers. Soon after, Alibaba became the leading ecommerce giant and earned 25
million U.S dollars. Lastly, in the year 2000, Google launched its first online advertising called
Google AdWords as pay-per-click content. In 2005, Amazon launched their membership system
called “Amazon Prime Membership” to give customers free two-day shipping in which fees are
charged annually from the members. Etsy, on the other hand, introduced and offered online
selling to small and medium scale retailers alongside the launch of the Amazon Prime
Membership in 2005. Later in the same year, Eddie Machaalani and Mitchell Harper launched
BigCommerce to serve as an online storefront platform. The launch of BigCommerce had a huge
impact on the development of E-commerce around the world. A few years later, Online payment
was introduced by Google to provide hassle-free and cash-free purchases when buying online.
In, 2011, Facebook was the first website to provide sponsored stories for advertisements. By
2014, Apple launched its app called Apple Pay, which is identical to Google’s online wallet
payment. In April 2014, an online shopping portal, Jet.com was introduced and later became a
subsidiary of Walmart.
 II. Emerging Platforms for E-commerce
With a recorded population of 107.3M in the Philippines, 76.2M are social media users
and 72M are mobile users (We Are Social, 2019). With that, ecommerce in the Philippines has
been a growing market. ASEAN UP (2019) reported the top 10 e-commerce sites that generate
the most customer traffic.
Lazada Philippines, being the top 1 e-commerce site, has generated over 25,000,000
monthly traffic. Lazada is considered as an online department store with retailers selling their
own products are also present in other asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and
Singapore. In 2016, Alibaba, China’s e-commerce giant has a controlling stake in the Southeast
operations. Its major competitor in the Philippines, Shopee Philippines, is the top 2 e-commerce
website in the market generating 14,400,000 monthly traffic. It is considered as a mobile-first,
diverse online shop providing web experience. Like Lazada, Shopee is present in more Southeast
countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Taiwan. A fashion brand, Zalora
Philippines, comes in third in generating 1,250,000 monthly traffic. It is considered as the
number one fashion-focused e-commerce. Focusing on pre-loved items, Carousell Philippines
comes in fourth with 930,000 monthly traffic. Carousell allows the seller to take a picture of their
items and immediately post it on the website or application and easily chat with the buyer. One
of the leaders of e-commerce in the world, Ebay Philippines generates a monthly traffic of
880,000 being in fifth place in the country. What was originally C2C became B2C catering to
general product categories. In sixth, a major telecommunication company, Globe Online Shop
has a monthly traffic of 840,000 being an online platform for mobile devices, gadgets, apparel,
and the corporation’s postpaid plans. Specializing in coupons and deals, Metrodeal is in the top 7
for focusing on promotions about restaurants, leisure, shopping, and travelling. Because of this,
Metrodeal had an expansion to Indonesia and Thailand and has a monthly traffic of 770,000. For
cosmetics and fashion, BeautyMNL has been on the top 8 with their specialized online store that
also focuses on being an online magazine with a monthly traffic of 590,000. In the ninth place, as
a specialized e-commerce platform for computer and electronics, Argomall sells hundreds of
brands related to ​computers and gadgets, electronics, digital media and electronic accessories and
tools. Argomall has a monthly traffic of 570,000. Lastly, true to its name, Galleon.ph is an
e-commerce that specializes in products not seen in the Philippines. It has a diverse set of
categories from other countries such as the US and China.

III. Conclusion
The e-commerce industry is gaining ground as digital marketplaces end 2018 with record
highs to reflect the growing number of Filipinos doing their shopping online. The government
also sees a big potential for e-commerce in the Philippines. The Trade department launched its
e-commerce roadmap up to 2020. The department targets to have e-commerce contribute 25% to
the gross domestic product by 2020 from 10 percent in 2015. They also believe that going digital
will also help micro, small and medium enterprises take part globally. This prospect encourages
entrepreneurs to take their businesses online. Competition is tough since there are a lot of online
shops now as compared to before. There are also more options and platforms for e-commerce
now like Instagram, Shopee, and the like. It is still a lucrative business, as long as one takes time
to know their market well and constantly rebrand and innovate what they can offer
 References
Asean Up. (2019, May 31). ​Top 10 e-commerce sites in the Philippines 2019. Retrieved
from ​https://aseanup.com/top-e-commerce-sites-philippines/
Fetalver, N. (2018, December 13). ​How ecommerce in the Philippines can become a
$10b economy. Retrieved from
https://www.techinasia.com/ecommerce-philippines-10b-economy