E-commerce in a narrow sense refers to the realization of electronic trade activities at all stages of the trade process.
E-commerce in a broad sense refers to the use of the network to realize the electronization of all business activities and business processes.
The former focuses on electronic transactions on the Internet, emphasizing that enterprises use electronic networks to cooperate with the outside world, while the latter expands the scope a lot, referring to enterprises using various electronic tools to engage in business activities.
From a narrow sense to a broad sense, e-commerce is a constantly developing concept. The first narrow sense of e-commerce is the concept of e-commerce first put forward by IBM, the pioneer of e-commerce, in 1996, and in 1997, IBM put forward the concept of e-commerce, the broad sense of e-commerce.
When these concepts were introduced into China, they were all translated into e-commerce. E-commerce usually refers to a new business model in which buyers and sellers conduct various business activities without meeting each other in a wide range of business activities around the world under the open network environment of the Internet. E-commerce is a new business model using microcomputer technology and related comprehensive service activities.