What is E-Commerce? (1)

In this post, we try to give a brief but comprehensive explanation of e-commerce. To do this, we first introduced the Internet commerce, and then we will go to e-commerce. Anyway, getting started with e-commerce should start with the internet itself. In the following, the various definitions given by individuals to e-commerce are addressed.


What is "Internet Commerce"?

By Internet commerce, we mean the use of the global Internet for purchase and sale of goods, services, including service and support after sale.

Internet commerce brings some new technology and new capabilities to business, but the fundamental business problems are those that merchants have faced for hundred - even thousands - of years:

you must have something to sell, make it known to potential buyers, accept payment deliver the goods or services, and provide appropriate service after the sale.

The Internet:

• an efficient mechanism for advertising and distributing product information.
• enabling complete business transactions..

Internet commerce: one type of the more general "electronic commerce".


What is "E-Commerce"?

There are many different definitions and understanding about E-Commerce.

According to Frederick J. Riggins and Hyeun-Suk Rhee, a recent pilot survey shows that some practitioners and managers view:

E-Commerce: buying and selling goods and products over internet.

However, researchers believe the E-Commerce practice should include a wide variety of presale and post-sale activities.

Applegate et al identify three classes of e-commerce applications:

• Customer-to-business
• Business-to business
• Intraorganzational

Different Definitions of E-Commerce

Zwass defines e-commerce as

“… the sharing of business information, maintaining business relationships, and the conducting business transactions by means of telecommunications networks”

He pointed out that e-commerce includes not only buying and selling goods over Internet, but also various business processes within individual organizations that support the goal.

Four different types of information technology are converging to create the discipline of e-commerce:

• electronic messages, email and fax
• sharing a corporate digital library
• electronic document interchange utilizing EDI and electronic funds transfer
• electronic publishing to promote marketing, advertising, sales, and customer support

Treese and Stewart gave their view of Internet-commerce as follows:

“… the use of the global Internet for purchase and sale of goods and services, including service and support after the sale. The Internet may be an efficient mechanism for advertising and distributing product information, but our focus is on enabling complete business transactions.”

“… Speaking broadly, electronic commerce includes the use of computing and communication technologies in financial business, online airline reservation, order processing, inventory management ...

Historically speaking, the best known idea in electronic commerce has been Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)… ”

Although their view of e-commerce has been expanded to services and support after sale.


Daniel Minoli and Emma Minoli gave their view of Internet-based commerce as follows:

“… This revolution is known as electronic commerce, which is any purchasing or selling through an electronic communications medium. …

Internet-based commerce, in general, and Web-based commerce, in particular, are important sub-disciplines of electronic commerce.”

“Electronic commerce is the symbiotic integration of communications, data management, and security capabilities to allow business applications within different organizations to automatically exchange information related to the sale of goods and services.”


Frederick J. Riggins and Hyeun-Suk Rhee gave their domain matrix for electronic commerce as follows:

Frederick J. Riggins and Hyeun-Suk Rhee gave their unified view of electronic commerce as follows:

Source: Introduction To E- Commerce, Jerry Gao, Ph.D