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Defining E-commerce

For the purposes of this study, we are provisionally adopting the following definitions. It is important that we be clear about this matter, since the terms are used in diverse, potentially misleading, and frequently confusing ways in the literature.

E-commerce: the purchases of goods, services or other financial transactions in which the interactive process is mediated by information or digital technology at both, locationally separate, ends of the interchange.

Notes:

Here "transactions" includes both specification of a good or service required, and commitment to buy. The service may involve an activity such as moving money between bank accounts, where the fee for this task is subsumed into the general handling charges of the account or other mechanisms.
We wish to delineate the process of e-commerce into a sequence of stages. These stages can include (not necessarily in this order) the expression of interest to purchase, exposure to information on the product or service, choosing of product of service, commitment to purchase, taking delivery, payment.
We understand that e-commerce often involves payment through a digital technology, or the transmission of sufficient details to allow such payments to be made. However, this is not in itself a defining feature of electronic commerce. Payment can be made offline, for example by cash-on-delivery, or when a ticket is picked up and still fall within the boundaries of our definition.
We understand e-commerce to involve electronic specification of the required good or service. However, there may be transactions (e.g. payment via smart card through a mobile phone) where rather than goods or services being ordered and paid for individually an agreement to supply is entered into. This would include service provided which are charged on a monthly or quarterly basis or goods that are provided "on approval".
"information or digital technology" includes embedded computers and microprocessors contained in smart cards, smart appliances, etc.
"mediation" suggests that the computer system does not only act to facilitate communication but has a transformative role in the activity. As such it excludes the simple fact that a telephone incorporates an embedded chip to store numbers or permit cellular telephony.
"locationally separate" is intended to exclude in-store purchasing systems, the use of smart cards in EPOS/EFTPOS systems, etc

Consumer E-commerce: E-commerce as defined above, where the client is a member of the public rather than a business.

Business E-commerce: Business-to-business e-commerce.

We understand that our study is to focus on consumer e-commerce.

Note: much traditional EDI is ruled out from this definition; since it is business e-commerce, this is not a problem for the present study. But we suggest that our focus needs to be wider than web e-commerce, since there are other possible lines of development involving, for example, smart cards or instructions issued over digital networks which have no use of web interfaces.

We see that by employing this understanding distinctions can be made between e-commerce and other automated or computer supported transactions. Given this, in store retail (such as ordering of goods in a catalogue shop), transactions undertaken by voice over a phone (even digital one) and the exchange of goods or services for which no charge is made are not e-commerce. However, online banking, purchase of Internet access from an ISP, or access to information (for example to web sites or to a film ordered through a set top box) and online booking procedures are all form of e-commerce.

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