OK, so this isn't strictly speaking an e-marketing issue, but it is about e-commerce and it is something that bugs me - and my students might learn from this.
In an article about online sales in the Sunday Times on April 29th its author, Jenny Davey, makes the statement: "The first-ever online transaction was a CD sale in America in August 1994."
Now, let me make this absolutely clear, this could well be an actual fact - although I would have added the word 'retail' before 'transaction', B2B stuff was happening before that in EDI environments.
However, I have never come across the fact - and remember I researched a book called 'Key Concepts in e-Commerce' [both off- and online]. Had I come across the fact I would most definitely have included alongside details of the first banner ad [around the same time] signalling the birth of the commercial Internet.
A check on the major search engines pulled up only this article and a series of blog comments that include reference to the Times' article.
So here is my point. Students get used to seeing comments - particularly on the web - and taking them as true [don't get me started on Wikipedia]. I encourage students to question things they read - particularly where the Internet/e-commerce is concerned. Here we have a statement in a reputable newspaper that students would be justified in quoting in an academic paper. And yet ... ?
No, I am not saying Jenny Davey made this up. I trust the Sunday Times has editorial procedures/standards that would prevent her doing so even if she wanted to.
My problem is that I am likely to see this 'fact' appear online, in articles, in books and in students' work. And I - some [not me] would say an expert in the field - have never heard of it before.
Jenny, if you read this - drop me an email with your source, I would be delighted to prove my scepticism wrong.
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