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What Is E-Commerce?

By R. Kayne
Updated May 16, 2024
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Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, refers to economic activity that occurs online. E-commerce includes all types of business activity, such as retail shopping, banking, investing and rentals. Even small businesses that provide personal services, such as hair and nail salons, can benefit from e-commerce by providing a website for the sale of related health and beauty products that normally are available only to their local customers.

Easy for Businesses

Although e-commerce once required an expensive interface and personal security certificate, this is no longer the case. Virtual storefronts are offered by a variety of hosting services and large Internet presences that offer simple solutions to vendors who have little or no online experience. There is an almost endless amount of products to sell online. Tools for running successful e-commerce websites are built into the hosting servers, eliminating the need for the individual merchant to redesign the wheel. These tools include benefits such as virtual shopping carts, inventory and sales logs and the ability to accept a variety of payment options, including secure credit card transactions.

Security Improvements

Early e-commerce was stunted by security fears, but improved technology has made millions of people worldwide feel comfortable buying online. Seeing the vast potential in online commerce, most credit card companies helped allay fears by guaranteeing that cardholders would not be held responsible for fraudulent charges as a result of online shopping. All of these factors have helped e-commerce become a booming industry.

Convenient for Shoppers

The popularity of online commerce is understandable, considering the time and hassle involved in running from store to store, searching for an item. It not only takes valuable time and energy, but using transportation usually costs money. Shopping online whenever the mood strikes — even in the middle of the night — has many advantages. Not only is it convenient to shop at a myriad of vendors from the comfort of a computer chair, it’s also a snap to find the best deal by allowing certain shopping sites to sift through all of the sellers.

Prices Often Lower

E-commerce also has other advantages. Employee overhead is virtually nonexistent, and the cost of operating a website usually is nominal, especially when compared with the cost of storefront property. To top it off, most transactions are handled by software processes, never requiring a real person until the item is ready to be packed and shipped. This translates into real savings to the customer. As a result, physical businesses often cannot compete with their online counterparts, although consumers do have to watch for inflated shipping fees that might negate the savings of buying online.

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Discussion Comments

By anon991328 — On Jun 12, 2015

e commerce is selliung your products online whereas e business is just advertising your products which cannot be bought offline.

By anon285495 — On Aug 16, 2012

Which companies will hire me if I choose to specialise in e-commerce?

By Pizzaliefer — On Feb 15, 2012

Pizzaliefer.de In Nürnberg Order Online Pizza

Pizzaliefer is the fastest food delivery plateform having about 13,000 restaurants in almost 97 countries with more than 143 stores in various cities of Germany....

Popular for serving people with yummy Pizzas, they are known to serve a variety of delicious contemporary dishes. Pizzaliefer In Nürnberg is not exceptional. The popular restaurant offer best facility to its customer in a very healthy environment that can be considered as world class service. Pizzaliefer in Nürnberg and Nürnberg both these cities have wide stock of different yummy dishes and step further to offer memorable diners and quality food. With wide variety of flavors and toppings, Pizzaliefer is thriving successfully in the German food market.

If you crave to have a delectable pizza at a reasonable, order at www.Pizzaliefer.de in Nürnberg and grab the Italian cuisine. If you are a vegetarian, you will get variety of choice in terms of flavor. You can order online and at very low price, you will enjoy scrumptious pizzas at your doorstep.

Apart from Nürnberg, Pizzaliefer has a number of restaurants in cities like Lieferservice Berlin, Bonn, Dresden, Fürth, Lieferservice Nürnberg,München and Pizza Erlangen to mention a few. The pizzas of Pizzaliefer range from small size to those of large sizes and include lean and crunchy Pizza to those stuffed ones. If you crave to have stuffed Pan Pizza, you must click in one www.pizzaliefer.de and enjoy a big bite.

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By anon210337 — On Aug 30, 2011

Ecommerce UK is fast becoming the primary way in which people purchase items, services and other products. The high street stores are fast becoming obsolete with high prices and no guarantee of stock.

By anon172015 — On May 02, 2011

what are the factors that drive e-commerce?

By anon170165 — On Apr 25, 2011

How do you tell if an ISP has e-commerce capabilities?

By designsecret — On Apr 01, 2011

This is pretty easy way to explain e-commerce.

By anon149605 — On Feb 04, 2011

Do I need to register my company to do e-commerce business?

By anon134276 — On Dec 14, 2010

While e-commerce once required an expensive interface and personal security certificate, this is no longer the case.

By anon84441 — On May 15, 2010

e-commerce is just a subset of e-business. e-business refers to all business activities while e-commerce refers to only the buying and selling of goods and/or services over the internet.

By anon80512 — On Apr 27, 2010

Essentially, none, but commerce generally refers to the big picture, as in trade between countries, for example, or state-wide and citywide businesses collectively, whereas "business" has a meaning that is typically used in a more specific fashion to mean a certain type of business or an individual business.

By anon79790 — On Apr 24, 2010

What are the main differences between e-commerce and e-business?

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