What is eCommerce

There is a common misconception that eCommerce is directly tied with having a web store with products, a shopping cart and checkout where you sell your company's products. Although this is considered eCommerce by our definition, it is just one part of a much broader and inclusive definition.

To help you better understand our view of eCommerce, it would initially be helpful for us to define the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web.

• Internet - a global network of computer networks or a networking infrastructure. Millions of computers form a network in which computers can communicate as long as they are both connected to the Internet. Information that travels over the Internet does so using a variety of languages known as protocols.

• World Wide Web (a.k.a. the Web) - is an information sharing paradigm that uses the Internet to transmit the information. The HTTP protocol is used to transmit this data in the form of documents known as web pages. Web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox and Safari are used to view these documents that are linked together using hyperlinks which are a method of requesting other documents from the World Wide Web.

Other common uses of the Internet are email, Usenet news groups and instant messaging. All use the Internet to transmit their data. The World Wide Web is also one of the uses of the Internet but these two terms are not synonymous and shouldn't be confused.

Now that we have this fact established, you will better understand when we say that a web store is more accurately web commerce and is just a part of eCommerce, albeit a large part. This now leads us to the question; "What is eCommerce?"

Ecommerce is the act of transacting and supporting business through the use of the Internet and Internet technologies including but not limited to;

• Selling products online
• Providing services
• Electronic data transfer
  • Web Services
  • EDI
  • Data Exchange
• Communications
  • With customers
  • With suppliers
  • Within your company
• Information distribution
• Streamlining business processes and workflow
• Systems Integration
• Business Management
• Business Intelligence

Aggressive examination of your company will reveal areas where eCommerce technology can increase your profitability.

Learn more about how Parse3 can help build eCommerce profitability by making an appointment to speak to our eCommerce Profit Architects.