Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is the use of computers and telecommunication
technologies to share business information, maintain business relationships, and conduct
business transactions. Its origin can be traced back to the Electronic Data Interchange 
(EDI) activity in the 1960's. EDI refers to the set of activities that are related to the 
electronic facilitation of the transactions between vendors and buyers (purchase orders,
waybills, manifests and schedules). Currently, e-commerce depends mostly on the 
Internet as the underlying platform. Business transactions are events that serve the 
mission of a business.A transaction provides the primary medium by which a business 
interacts with its suppliers, customers, partners, employees, and the government. 
Transactions are significant because they capture and/or create data about and
 for businesses (Whitten & Bently, 1997). Examples of transactions include purchases, 
orders, sales, reservations, shipments, invoices, and payment processing.


E-commerce began in the 1990's and was largely driven by the invention of the
World Wide Web. The adoption of e-commerce has led to many new 
business models.The most important models of e-commerce are business-
to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer(B2C), and consumer-to-consumer (C2C).
C2C e-commerce refers to the use of the Internet by consumers to provide
goods and information to other consumers it offers an effective way to 
exchange goods and information between consumers. B2C ecommerce
mostly refers to the use of the Internet by a business to provide goods 
and services to customers; it offers consumers a fast and efficient way
to access various products and services from retailers all over the world
without leaving home. B2B ecommerce refers to the use of the Internet
between businesses to order products, receive invoices, and make payments;
it reduces production costs, accelerates ordering processes, and improves
inventory management. By exploiting efficiency, economy, and speed of 
the Internet, e-commerce simplifies and reduces the cost of processes
involved in business transactions.


References
International Journal of Information Science and Management