E-Business and E-Commerce

It is widely known how the internet has changed everybody's lives in the modernist era. As it has changed our lives, it has also changed our way of buying and making business. Now we don't need to go out in terms to pay bills or just buy a dress! Yeah, it really is making our lives easier.

So companies have seen Internet as a great tool to transform their organizations in order to increase their competitive advantage and becoming more global. Because as we all know, Internet is global. However, not everything is as good as it sounds. Companies also have to face some other issues like privacy and security which I will talk about it in a next blog.

First of all, I think we may all think that e business and e commerce are the same thing. Well, let me tell you about that ladies and gentleman, you are all wrong! yep!I was wrong too!

When we think about e commerce and e business we just think simply. It is about making business through the net.

E commerce as defined by the UK government is : “ The exchange of information across electronic networks, at any stage in the supply chain, whether within an organization, between businesses, between businesses and consumers, or between the public and private sector, whether paid or unpaid”. (Cabinet Office, 1999)

So basically e-commerce is not only about selling and buying through internet. E commerce is all the electronic transactions between an organization and any third party it deals with. Those transactions could take the form as financial transactions and non financial transactions. For example when a customer requests further information about products and services, that could be said it is a non financial transaction.

On the other hand, e business is when a company has integrated the technology into all its businesses process, changing all its business model for a new one called e business. It includes all the process within the organization like marketing, development, manufacturing, logistics, etc.

So it could be said that e commerce is a subset of business.

You can see a nice video below of an explanation about e business and the differences between e business and e commerce in general.