Looking this up gives a comprehensive insight, some of it I extracted below, for full reading go to Wikibooks Ecommerce and Ebusiness/Concepts and Definitions.
You can also download a pdf-version: Ecommerce and Ebusiness
Is ecommerce the same as ebusiness?
While some use ecommerce and ebusiness interchangeably, they are distinct concepts. In ecommerce, information and communications technology (ICT) is used in inter-business or inter-organizational transactions (transactions between and among firms/organizations) and in business-to-consumer transactions (transactions between firms/organizations and individuals).
In ebusiness, on the other hand, ICT is used to enhance one’s business. It includes any process that a business organization (either a for-profit, governmental or non-profit entity) conducts over a computer-mediated network. A more comprehensive definition of ebusiness is:
“The transformation of an organization’s processes to deliver additional customer value through the application of technologies, philosophies and computing paradigm of the new economy.”
Three primary processes are enhanced in ebusiness:
1. Production processes, which include procurement, ordering and replenishment of stocks; processing of payments; electronic links with suppliers; and production control processes, among others;
2. Customer-focused processes, which include promotional and marketing efforts, selling over the Internet, processing of customers’ purchase orders and payments, and customer support, among others; and
3. Internal management processes, which include employee services, training, internal information-sharing, video-conferencing, and recruiting. Electronic applications enhance information flow between production and sales forces to improve sales force productivity. Workgroup communications and electronic publishing of internal business information are likewise made more efficient.
Is the Internet economy synonymous with ecommerce and ebusiness?
The Internet economy is a broader concept than ecommerce and ebusiness. It includes ecommerce and ebusiness.
The CREC (Center for Research in Electronic Commerce) at the University of Texas has developed a conceptual framework for how the Internet economy works. The framework shows four layers of the Internet economy-the three mentioned above and a fourth called intermediaries (see Table 1).
Table 1. Internet Economy Conceptual Frame
The major different types of ecommerce are:
- business-to-business (B2B)
business-to-consumer (B2C)
business-to-government (B2G)
consumer-to-consumer (C2C)
mobile commerce (m-commerce)
