E-commerce

There is no universally accepted definition of electronic commerce (or e-commerce). The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines electronic commerce as a ‘transaction occurring over open networks, such as the Internet. Both business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions are included’. The OECD further define an electronic transaction as:

‘an electronic transaction is the sale or purchase of goods or services, whether between businesses, households, individuals, governments, and other public or private organisations, conducted over computer-mediated networks. The goods and services are ordered over those networks, but the payment and the ultimate delivery of the good or service may be conducted on or off-line’.

E-commerce under the OECD definition would exclude older forms of electronic commerce (such as fax or telex) but would include traditional electronic data interchange (EDI) and online e-commerce (including trade using mobile apps or via online platforms and sales utilising e-commerce platforms).

The term ‘e-business’ is often used to describe a broader concept of applying computer technology not only to the buying and selling of goods, digital content or services, but also to internal processes within a business such as knowledge management and human resources.

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