E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet.[1] E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. E-commerce is the largest sector of the electronics industry and is in turn driven by the technological advances of the semiconductor industry.
E-commerce businesses may also employ some or all of the following:
- Online shopping for retail sales direct to consumers via web sites and mobile apps, conversational commerce via live chat, chatbots, and voice assistants.
- Providing or participating in online marketplaces, which process third-party business-to-consumer (B2C) or consumer-to-consumer (C2C) sales;
- Business-to-business (B2B) buying and selling.
- Gathering and using demographic data through web contacts and social media.
- B2B electronic data interchange.
- Marketing to prospective and established customers by e-mail or fax (for example, with newsletters).
- Engaging in pretail for launching new products and services.
- Online financial exchanges for currency exchanges or trading purposes.
There are five essential categories of E-commerce:
- Business to Business
- Business to Consumer
- Business to Government
- Consumer to Business
- Consumer to Consumer