2. What is ecommerce?

Ecommerce means the sale and purchase of goods and services over electronic systems such as the internet.

This can mean businesses selling to customers or businesses selling to other businesses or a new trend with the growth of sites like ebay, ordinary people selling to other people.

Although ecommerce tends to be thought of mainly to do with shops it actually covers a whole range of other things. It can also be things like ordering concert tickets online, booking a last minute holiday, reserving and paying for a movie at your local video store.

Some ecommerce is entirely electronic from start to finish, for example paying for access to premium content on a website. There are no physical items involved.

But for most people, ecommerce does involve physical goods.