There are two kinds of information flow: broad sense and narrow sense. Broadly speaking, it refers to a group of information moving in the same direction in space and time. They have a common information source and information receiver, that is, a collection of all information transmitted by one information source to another unit. In a narrow sense, it refers to the information transmission movement through certain channels under the conditions of research, development and application of modern information technology, according to certain requirements.

With the informatization of society, the emergence of a large amount of information and the surge of people's demand for information, information flow has formed a complex and rapidly changing form. This flow can occur between people, between people and institutions, within institutions and between institutions, including tangible flow and intangible flow, the former such as reports, drawings, books and periodicals, and the latter such as electrical signals, acoustic signals and optical signals.

In social and economic life, with the separation of business flow, logistics and capital flow, the role of information flow is becoming more and more important, and its functions are mainly reflected in communication, guidance and adjustment, decision-making assistance and economic appreciation.

A simple way to evaluate the success of an enterprise is to look at its logistics, workflow and information flow, in which the quality, speed and coverage of information flow can "reflect" the quality of enterprise production, management and decision-making.

Because logistics and workflow are presented in the "life activities" of enterprises in the "advanced form" of information flow, just as all activities of organisms are based on bioelectrical signals transmitted by nervous system. Therefore, a deep understanding of "information flow" will open a new perspective for enterprise development.

Any transaction in e-commerce includes information flow, business flow, capital flow and logistics.