.1 Background and significance of e-commerce

Since the 1990s, with the breakthrough progress of network, communication and information technology, the Internet has exploded and rapidly spread around the world. Under this premise, e-commerce came into being. E-commerce is a brand-new business model based on the Internet, with both parties as the main body, bank electronic payment and settlement as the means, and customer data as the support. It can connect merchants and suppliers more closely and meet customer needs more quickly. It can also allow merchants to choose the best suppliers worldwide and sell products in the global market. Since 1998, the "Year of E-commerce", e-commerce has developed rapidly around the world, with its transaction volume doubling approximately every nine months. The global e-commerce transaction volume (including online trade volume, sales, etc.) has reached hundreds of billions of US dollars, and e-commerce revenue has increased by 262%.

At present, countries around the world are optimistic about the new continent of e-commerce. It is generally believed that the development of e-commerce will be an important driving force for the development of the world economy in the next 25 years, and the promotion of the economy will far exceed the industrial revolution 200 years ago. Robert Metcalfe, a famous Internet economic survey and commentator, claimed: "The value of the Internet is equal to the square of the number of outlets (connected to it)."

1.2 The current situation of e-commerce

A study result published recently shows that my country's e-commerce industry has developed rapidly in recent years. The total number of online stores has exceeded 100,000, and the total number of goods displayed online is about 20 million.

The study was conducted by Shanghai Dongfang Wangcheng Data Technology Co., Ltd. The research objects include all websites with independent domain names and online store systems, as well as some online stores with a certain scale that rent third-party platforms, but do not include stores located on auction websites such as eBay, Taobao, and Yipai.

For e-commerce, the "Electronic Signature Law" officially implemented on April 1 should be an opportunity. Recently, the "China E-commerce Integrity Alliance" initiated by the China Electronic Commerce Association was established in Beijing. More than 40 Internet company CEOs in the industry, such as eBay and Joyo, gathered and signed the "Integrity Declaration", which shows that Chinese e-commerce companies are beginning to move from external discipline to self-discipline.

According to relevant data, the scale of my country's online auction market was 940 million yuan in 2002, 1.92 billion yuan in 2003, and it is expected to reach nearly 3.37 billion yuan in 2004. However, the second "my country Internet Hotspot Survey Report" released by my country Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) last year showed that 60.6% of netizens in the country have browsed shopping websites within six months, but only 17.9% have paid for purchases. This shows that the current development of my country's e-commerce industry is far from tapping its huge potential.

Therefore, the development trend of my country's e-commerce is very good, and the development potential of e-commerce is very large.