E-commerce
While some use e‐commerce and e‐business interchangeably, they are distinct concepts. Electronic business,
commonly referred to as "e‐Business" or "e‐business", may be defined as the application of information and
communication technologies (ICT) in support of all the activities of business. Commerce constitutes the exchange of
products and services between businesses, groups and individuals and can be seen as one of the essential activities
of any business. Electronic commerce focuses on the use of ICT to enable the external activities and relationships of
the business with individuals, groups and other businesses.
E‐Commerce Is a particular form of e‐Business. Electronic business methods enable companies to link their internal
and external data processing systems more efficiently and flexibly, to work more closely with suppliers and partners,
and to better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers. Compared to e‐Commerce, e‐Business is a more
generic term because it refers not only to information exchanges related to buying and selling but also servicing
customers and collaborating with business partners, distributors and suppliers.
E‐Business encompasses sophisticated business‐to‐business interactions and collaboration activities at a level of
enterprise applications and business processes, enabling business partners to share in‐depth business intelligence,
which leads, in turn, to the management and optimization of inter‐enterprise processes such as supply chain
management. More specifically, e‐Business enables companies to link their internal and external processes more
efficiently and flexibly, work more closely with suppliers and better satisfy the needs and expectations of their
customers.
In practice, e‐business is more than just e‐commerce. While e‐business refers to more strategic focus with an
emphasis on the functions that occur when using electronic capabilities, e‐commerce is a subset of an overall e‐
business strategy. E‐commerce seeks to add revenue streams using the World Wide Web or the Internet to build and
enhance relationships with clients and partners and to improve efficiency using the Empty Vessel strategy. Often, e‐
commerce involves the application of knowledge management systems.
E‐business involves business processes spanning the entire value chain: electronic purchasing and supply chain
management, processing orders electronically, handling customer service, and cooperating with business partners.
Special technical standards for e‐business facilitate the exchange of data between companies. E‐business software
solutions allow the integration of intra and inter firm business processes. E‐business can be conducted using the
Web, the Internet, intranets, extranets, or some combination of these.
Basically, electronic commerce (EC) is the process of buying, transferring, or exchanging products, services, and/or
information via computer networks, including the internet. EC can also be benefited from many perspective
including business process, service, learning, collaborative, community. EC is often confused with e‐business.
In e‐commerce, information and communications technology (ICT) is used in inter‐business or inter‐organizational
transactions (transactions between and among firms/organizations) and in business‐to‐consumer transactions
(transactions between firms/organizations and individuals).
In e‐business, on the other hand, ICT is used to enhance one’s business. It includes any process that a business
organization (either a for‐profit, governmental or non‐profit entity) conducts over a computer‐mediated network.
A more comprehensive definition of e‐business is: “The transformation of an organization’s processes to deliver
additional customer value through the application of technologies, philosophies and computing paradigm of the new
economy.”
