E-Commerce

Electronic commerce can be defined as the process of electronically conducting all forms of business between entities in order to achieve the organisation's objectives. Electronic commerce, e-commerce business or any variations that you come across all mean the same thing - the use of information technology to support the conduct of any business activity.

E-Commerce Definition

The term 'electronic commerce' embraces:

electronic trading;
electronic messaging;
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI);
Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT);
electronic mail (email);
facsimile, computer-to-fax (C-fax);
electronic catalogues and bulletin board services (BBS);
shared databases and directories;
continuous acquisition and lifecycle support (CALS);
electronic news and information services;
electronic payroll;
electronic forms (E-forms);
online access to services such as the Internet; and
any other form of electronic data transmission.

The current focus of e-commerce is commerce over the Internet, between company's Intranets or via their Extranet of suppliers and partners.