What does 'e-commerce' involve?

The concept of e-commerce primarily involves buying and selling goods over the internet. This encompasses a wide range of online commercial activities, including retail sales of products, digital services, and marketplace transactions where consumers and businesses transact without physical interaction. The rise of e-commerce has transformed traditional marketplaces by enabling consumers to purchase items from anywhere at any time, using various digital platforms.

E-commerce platforms can include websites, social media, and mobile applications that provide the infrastructure for these transactions. This method of commerce relies heavily on information technology, as it facilitates the entire process from product discovery to payment and delivery.

While manufacturing goods, conducting face-to-face sales, and managing supply chains are important aspects of business operations, they do not encapsulate the definition of e-commerce. Manufacturing pertains to creating products, face-to-face sales involve direct human interaction, and supply chain management deals with the logistics of getting a product from producer to consumer, none of which are intrinsic to the definition of e-commerce itself.