It’s a digital-first world and you will often come across terms like E-commerce and E-business. While these terms sound synonymous, in reality they are closely related and often overlap. However, they are not exactly the similar. For a business trying to enter the digital domain, understanding the differences between the two is crucial but anyone who is a part of the digital economy needs to study in-depth to sort the differences. No matter what the differences are, both e-commerce and e-business play a vital role in shaping modern business operations.
E-commerce: things to know
When it comes to e-commerce definition, which is the concise form of electronic commerce, it is a method of buying and selling goods and services over the internet. In other words, e-commerce procedure involves monetary transactions or exchange of money taking place online.
For instance, when you purchase a garment from any e-commerce platform, you are involved in an online transaction and get the thing in exchange of money. Similarly, when buying a subscription for streaming services like Amazon Prime or Netflix, you need to pay transact money online.
Some of the key features of e-commerce are listed below:
- E-commerce platforms can be accessed from anywhere 24x7
- Accessing international markets
- Choose a wide range of products and services online
- Ability to collect valuable insights about customers for personalization
- Cost-effective operations compared to physical stores
Businesses need to observe digital commerce trends when considering a switch to online platform from the brick and mortar store.
Types of E-Commerce Platforms
There are several types of e-commerce platforms and here they are:
- B2B : Transactions take place between businesses
- B2C : Businesses sell products and services to consumers
- C2C: Transactions take place between individuals and third-party site
- B2B: Individuals selling goods and services to businesses
Payment Gateways of E-Commerce
There are different payment gateways that enable online transactions on different e-commerce platforms and they are:
- Cash on delivery
- Digital wallets like PayPal
- Bank transfers
- UPI
Each transaction that takes place in the e-commerce platform involves secured exchange of payment information between the merchant, customer, and payment processor.
E-commerce is a transactional online business and that is why a majority of online marketplaces are motivated to conduct trading of consumable goods and services.
E-Business Things to Know
E-business or electronic business is an all-encompassing term and refers to the digital technology that companies use to conduct their business processes on the internet. Such procedures are supply chain management, customer relationship management, and processing orders electronically. Electronic business also indicates external transactions and internal communications where digital technologies come to play to rev up your business procedures. In short, e-business is the process of implementing and leveraging digital technology to improve internal operations and external communication with customers. Furthermore, it also improves efficiency and competitiveness of a business owing to digital transformation.
Here are some of the key features of e-business model:
- It is process-oriented and involves both external and internal business procedures
- Technology integration is leveraging technology to lift and automate business operations and does not focus on sales alone
- Aims to improve productivity, workflow, and data management
E-commerce vs E-business: What are the primary differences?
When it comes to assessing e-commerce vs e-business, here are the parameters based on which you need to draw conclusions:
- Scope: The scope of e-commerce is restricted to buying and selling goods and services online but when it comes to e-business, it incorporates all the digital aspects of business.Use of technology : Technology in e-commerce is meant for marketing and online sales but for a business, it includes elements like CRM, ERP, SCM, HRM, and others
- Focus: The focus of e-commerce is transaction-based while that of e-business is process-based
- Components: The components of e-commerce includes shopping cart, website, and payment gateway and those included in e-business are digital marketing, supply chain, customer service, and internal collaboration.
- Customer interaction: In e-commerce platforms, there is direct interaction with customers and in e-business, there are external and internal stakeholders.
When studying the differences of e-commerce vs traditional business, you don’t just figure out the distinctions. They are related to each other and the top digital companies incorporate both in their business strategies. For instance, a company uses e-commerce platforms to sell its products and services but adhere to various online tools to manage employees, customer support, and supply chain.
Benefits of E-Commerce and E-Business
While preparing online business strategies, knowing the benefits of e-commerce and e-business comes to use. Here they are:
E-commerce
E-commerce is used to sell goods and services to customers across the globe
The platforms can be accessed 24x7
The inventory can be scaled easily along with the reach
The operational cost of managing e-commerce platforms is lower than physical stores
Customers can access the platform from any location.
E-Business
- E-business helps businesses automate tasks to reduce the chances of human errors and enhance the speed
- For communication, using digital tools helps streamline collaboration
- The follow-up processes and support improves as well
- There is a lot of scope for introducing innovation through new technologies and rev up improvement.
So, e-commerce focuses on online transactions, e-business is a broad spectrum aspect in which business processes are managed electronically. Typically, e-commerce is one wing of e-business and the latter comes with a more comprehensive approach and involves using digital technologies to rev up business success.
For businesses stepping towards the online domain from brick and mortar stores, understanding e-commerce vs e-business is essential to build the online presence. If you own a business and want to thrive in the digital age, you too need to have a good grasp on these distinctions. Therefore, if you are hoping to turn your business to the online mode for selling goods and services, you must rely on e-commerce but if you are keen to optimize your business and leverage digital technologies for operations, e-business is an optical choice. At Carney Technologies Services, one of the leading Digital marketing services in kolkata, we assist businesses to adopt the right digital elements and reshape in the evolving business world.
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