E-Commerce

E-Commerce


 * [|Electronic commerce]**, commonly known as (electronic marketing) **e-commerce** or **eCommerce**, consists of the buying and selling of [|products] or [|services] over electronic systems such as the Internet and other [|computer networks]. ([])

A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for [|virtual] items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way.

Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as [|business-to-business] or [|B2B]. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. [|commodity exchange]) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants ([|private electronic market]). Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as [|business-to-consumer] or [|B2C]. Long employed by large businesses and financial service organizations, several factors are now converging to bring electronic commerce to a new level of utility and viability for small businesses and individuals -- thereby promising to make it part of everyday life. These enabling factors include improved broader competitive access to networks, and the reduced cost and increased user-friendliness of both general-purpose computers and specialized devices. The rapid growth of primarily the Internet and other on-line services, convenient point-of-sale payment systems, and automated teller machines all set the stage for broad-scale electronic commerce. Further, with relentless pressures of competition at all levels of the economy, the efficiencies offered by electronic commerce are becoming hard to ignore.