Short answers, pulled from the story.
The term e-commerce was coined by Robert Jacobson, Principal Consultant to the California State Assembly's Utilities and Commerce Committee. He used it in the title and text of California's Electronic Commerce Act, which was enacted in 1984.
"Ten Summoner's Tales" by Sting was the first secure online retail purchase, completed through NetMarket in 1994. Shortly after, on the 27th of April 1995, Paul Stanfield made the United Kingdom's first national online shopping service secure transaction, buying a book from W H Smith inside CompuServe's UK Shopping Centre.
Global e-commerce sales topped $1 trillion for the first time in 2012. By 2017, retail e-commerce sales worldwide reached $2.304 trillion, a 24.8% increase over the prior year, with revenues projected to grow to $4.891 trillion by 2021.
China accounted for 42.4% of worldwide retail e-commerce by value in 2016, the highest share of any country. In the first half of 2015, China's online shopping sales alone reached $253 billion, representing 10% of total Chinese consumer retail sales.
In March 2020, global retail website traffic hit 14.3 billion visits. Online sales in the United States increased by 25% and online grocery shopping rose by over 100% during the crisis. As many as 29% of surveyed American shoppers said they would never return to in-person shopping.
E-commerce in the United States is regulated by several laws. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 sets national standards for commercial email. The Federal Trade Commission Act governs all online advertising and consumer privacy. The Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008 addresses online pharmacies, and the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 sets additional rules for commerce conducted in California.