E-commerce

E-commerce (also written as e-Commerce, eCommerce or similar variants), short for electronic commerce, is trading in products or services using computer networks, such as the Internet.

Description

Electronic 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
• Automated data collection systems
• Etc.

Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at least one part of the transaction's life cycle, although it may also use other technologies such as Email.

E-commerce businesses may employ some or all of the following:

• Online shopping - web sites for retail sales direct to consumers
• Providing or participating in online marketplaces, which process third-party business-to-consumer or consumer-to-consumer sales
• Business-to-business buying and selling
• Gathering and using demographic data through web contacts and social media
• Business-to-business 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

See also

• Computer security
• Internet
• Internet security
• Online shopping

External links

• E-commerce @ Wikipedia