In our day-to-day life, we perform various tasks with the help of Internet like purchasing or selling goods. Electronic commerce or e-commerce is basically the exchange of information/currency for goods or services online.
The term e-commerce got popularized from the 1980s, where it denotes the buying and selling of goods through the transmission of data, made possible by the introduction of the electronic data interchange (EDI). In the current digital society, e-commerce can be viewed as online business, becoming one of the most popular methods of making money online and an attractive opportunity for the investors.
Sharing business information, maintaining business relationships and conducting business transactions using computers connected to a telecommunication network is called E-Commerce. A more general definition of e-commerce is given by Wigand (1997) as, “The seamless application of information and communication technology (ICT) from its point of origin to its endpoint along the entire value chain of business processes conducted electronically and designed to enable the accomplishment of a business goal. These procedures may be partial or complete or may encompass business to business as well as business to consumer and consumer to business transactions.”
Originally, e-commerce means the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). These were both introduced in the late 1970s, allowing businesses to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically. The growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were also forms of e-commerce strongly and changed the old conceptions of e-commerce. Now, the new age e-commerce has spread to areas like airline reservation system, railway reservation system, online shopping, online business and many more. The e-commerce means the use of Internet and the web for business transactions/commercial transactions, which typically involves the exchange of values/information/ideas across organizational or individual boundaries.
It is a process of purchasing, selling, shifting or exchanging products, services, and or information via electronic networks and computers. E-commerce is like a parasol that covers everything there is to do with purchasing or selling online. It can sometimes be written as “E Commerce”, “e-commerce”, or eCommerce”. The term commerce is defined as trading of good & services; ‘e’ for ‘electronic’ is added to this, e- commerce in simpler terms can be defined as trading of goods, services, information or anything else of value between two entities over the internet. Following are some definitions of e-commerce-
• It is the ability to conduct business electronically over the internet.
• It means managing transactions using networking and electronic means.
• It is a platform for selling products & services via internet.