electronic commerce

[i·lek¦trän·ik ′kä·mərs]

(computer science)

Business done on the Internet. Also known as e-business; e-commerce.

electronic commerce

(application, communications)

(EC) The conducting of business communication and transactions over networks and through computers. As most restrictively defined, electronic commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services, and the transfer of funds, through digital communications. However EC also includes all inter-company and intra-company functions (such as marketing, finance, manufacturing, selling, and negotiation) that enable commerce and use electronic mail, EDI, file transfer, fax, video conferencing, workflow, or interaction with a remote computer.

Electronic commerce also includes buying and selling over the World-Wide Web and the Internet, electronic funds transfer, smart cards, digital cash (e.g. Mondex), and all other ways of doing business over digital networks.

[Electronic Commerce Dictionary].

This article is provided by FOLDOC - Free Online Dictionary of Computing (foldoc.org)

e-commerce

(Electronic-COMMERCE) Selling products online via the Internet. Also called "e-business" and "e-tailing." In most cases, the terms e-commerce and e-business are synonymous. However, e-commerce implies that goods are purchased online, whereas e-business might include electronic data interchange (EDI), in which one company's computer directly queries the inventory of another (see EDI). See Internet retailer.

The Evolution of Online Ordering
If mail order from a catalog had not been so popular in the Western world, perhaps e-commerce would have had a slower start. However, online ordering has been so ubiquitous that in order to entice customers back into the physical store, some retail outlets prior to COVID-19 have resorted to offering coffee and lunch bars, educational classes and other social events.

However, due to COVID-19, physical shopping plummeted and e-commerce has dramatically increased. Pundits are debating the permanent effects of the pandemic on retail outlets and malls in the future. See m-commerce, microcommerce and clicks and mortar.

The First "Electronic" Commerce

In 1886, a telegraph operator managed to obtain a shipment of watches that had been refused by the local jeweler. Using the telegraph, he sold all the watches to fellow operators and railroad employees and then ordered more. Within a short time, he made enough money to quit his job and start his own catalog mail order business. The young man's name was Richard Sears, who founded Sears, Roebuck and Co. in 1893.

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References in periodicals archive

Electronic commerce systems activities need to be conducted with relevant consumer protection legislation in mind; for example, UK organizations conducting electronic commerce transactions over the Internet should comply with the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 (CPR, 2000).

Cyber law: case studies in the SME environment

To study methods of taxation in this electronic commerce era, the tax architecture should be considered and planned because taxcollecting methods can vary with the tax architecture.

A taxation model: the Korean Value Added Tax on electronic commerce

Employees are not the only stakeholders who can be reluctant to engage in electronic commerce. Some company executives still refuse to use the Internet, and delegate online tasks, even managing their e-mail, to their secretaries.

The internal factors that can make or break e-commerce implementation. (Special Focus on E-business Strategies)

The complexity of documenting electronic commerce increases in proportion to the complexity of the signature method used.

Legal issues in documenting: e-commerce transactions. (Cover Story)

S.I Tech's Software Services for Electronic Commerce is a new service to assist customers using the IBM AS/400E platform in setting up their own on-line stores.

S.I. TECH'S 4000 SERIES SUPPORTS EXPRESS TWINAX PROTOCOL

The act also called for the creation of the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce. Its 19 members include the secretaries of Commerce and Treasury, the U.S.

Spend and Tax?

E-Commerce Security: A Global Status Report found that companies with some form of Web business overwhelmingly cited a need to make profits to return their heavy investments into the Web; most implemented electronic commerce to cut costs, improve efficiency, and provide a new way of doing business, all in hopes of improving the company's bottom line.

Profit Before Security

The Uniform CodeCouncil will hold its annual Electronic Commerce Users Conference May 24-26, 2000 at the Hyatt Regency at Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale, AZ.

UCC slates e-commerce conference

Meanwhile, during the entire year, articles mentioned "e-commerce" or "electronic commerce" only 915 times.

What Happened to the "Information Superhighway"?

awareness of the potential for electronic commerce. Yet all too often,

Enterprise E-Commerce

is in talks with five Japanese convenience store chain operators to form an alliance in electronic commerce, a Toyota official said Friday.

Toyota, convenience stores in talks on e-commerce