what is ecommerce

By definition e-commerce refers to businesses and consumers buying and selling products online. The majority of e-commerce websites on the internet are retail stores selling products directly to the public. However there are also a proportion of online stores dedicated to business-to-business (B2B) sales or wholesale activity. E-commerce does not only refer to the selling of physical products, it can also refer to the selling of services where payments for the services are made online. As a general rule an e-commerce website is a website where a transfer of funds is completed electronically - hence e-commerce.

• lower prices offered by vendors operating with less margin than a bricks and mortar store
• greater convenience of having a product delivered rather than the cost of time and transport and parking of going to a store
• sourcing product more cheaply from overseas vendors
• great variety and inventory offered by online stores
• comparison engines that compare and recommend product
• auction sites, where they did for goods