What Is eCommerce

Before you can be successful in anything you need to know what that thing is and what the requirements are. When it comes to e-commerce knowing the requirements is a real challenge. E-commerce covers such a range of options and possibilities and has, as an underlying premise, all the tenents of any good business.

E-commerce is a short form of the two words electronic and commerce and refers to any type of business or commercial transaction that takes place electronically; today that generally means over the Internet. It can be any type of business whether it be the selling of products or the providing of services. The exchange of goods or services can be by retail or wholesale selling, auction, trade or any other method, and the goods or services can be provided by either real-world or digital delivery. E-commerce may be the most important aspect to emerge on the Internet and it may well represent the fastest growing segment of the over all economy.

E-commerce transends the normal real-world limitations of time or distance allowing even small, home-based, enterprises to deal world-wide in all time zones. It is often said that the Internet (and especially e-commerce) levels the playing field for competition between businesses of all sizes. The boundaries between the conventional business model and e-commerce are becoming increasingly blurred as more and more businesses move sections of their operations onto the Internet. Giant brick and mortar businesses like WalMart, Target and Best Buy now do a significant portion of their business via online websites. Amway, traditionally a person-to-person real-world business now does its North American business entirely through its Quixtar online e-commerce arm.

Business to Business (B2B) refers to that segment of all commerce which takes place between businesses rather than between a business and an individual consumer. One business may deal with hundreds or even thousands of other businesses as either customers or suppliers. By moving these transactions to the Internet (e-commerce) the company enjoys a greater competitive edge over traditional methods of transacting business. With proper implementation e-commerce is typically faster, cheaper, and more convenient than off-line processes. A business no longer needs to be a huge physical enterprise to be a supplier to other businesses both large and small.

Electronic transactions between businesses have been around for quite some time now through the use of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). EDI methods typically required each supplier and their individual customer to set up a dedicated process between them. This was costly to implement and often difficult to manage. The Internet has changed all that. E-commerce provides a cost-effective method to set up multiple, easy-to-manage, links between all of a company's customers. E-commerce has opened the door to the development of electronic marketplaces where suppliers and potential customers are easily brought together to conduct mutually beneficial trade, often across large distances, even internationally, and sometimes without ever seeing each other. Today e-commerce involves both B2B, and company to individual, transactions.

Your path to creating a successful online (e-commerce) business can be a difficult process if you remain unaware of e-commerce principles and pitfalls, and what e-commerce is supposed to do for your online business. Researching and understanding the process required to properly implement an e-business plan is a crucial part to becoming successful with online business building.