What is E-commerce ?

. It covers a range of different types of businesses, from consumer based retail sites, through auction or music sites, to business exchanges trading goods and services between corporations.

It links suppliers and consumers by means of trade and activities auxiliary to trade such as transport, banking, insurance and warehousing.

It is currently one of the most important aspects of the Internet to emerge.

There are many ways to classify ecommerce websites

The most important links are provided by a series of markets controlled by the price system.

Ecommerce allows consumers to electronically exchange goods and services with no barriers of time or distance.

Electronic commerce has expanded rapidly over the past five years and is predicted to continue at this rate,

You can categorize them according to the products or services that they sell,

James Stephenson has given an exhaustive definition of commerce.

even accelerate. In the near future the boundaries between "conventional" and "electronic" commerce will become increasingly blurred as more and more businesses move sections of their operations onto the Internet.

Business to Business or B2B refers to electronic commerce between businesses rather than between a business and a consumer.

He says that, “Commerce is the sum total of all those processes, which are engaged in the removal of hindrance of persons (trade), place (transport and insurance) and time (warehousing) in the exchange (banking) of commodities.”

the parties that they transact with, or even the platforms on which they operate.

B2B businesses often deal with hundreds or even thousands of other businesses, either as customers or suppliers

Generally trade and commerce are taken as synonymous words.

B2B businesses often deal with hundreds or even thousands of other businesses, either as customers or suppliers

In this guide, we’ll look at all three aspects to give you a clear picture of what types of ecommerce sites are out there.

While trade involves buying and selling of goods, commerce has a wider meaning

Carrying out these transactions electronically provides vast competitive advantages over traditional methods

Commerce includes trade and aids to trade.

When implemented properly, ecommerce is often faster, cheaper and more convenient than the traditional methods of bartering goods and services.

Besides trade, it includes all those activities which help the expansion of trade.

The aids to trade include transport, banking, insurance, warehousing, advertisement and salesmanship.

Electronic transactions have been around for quite some time in the form of Electronic Data Interchange or EDI.

EDI requires each supplier and customer to set up a dedicated data link (between them), where ecommerce provides a cost-effective method for companies to set up multiple, ad-hoc links