E-Commerce Foundations and Business Model · Lesson 1

What Counts as E-Commerce? Scope, Actors and Ordering Channels

9 min read

Lesson objectives

Distinguish electronic ordering from digital discovery, payment, or delivery.
Identify the main actors in an e-commerce transaction and map responsibility/data handoffs.
Distinguish party relationships such as B2B/B2C from the ordering channel.

Start with the order, not the storefront

E-commerce can look like “any sale that happens on the internet,” but that description is too broad. In common measurement definitions, the key question is **how the order is placed**. The OECD treats a transaction as e-commerce when goods or services are ordered over computer networks using methods specifically designed for receiving or placing orders. Payment and delivery do not have to happen online. A customer may therefore order through an e-commerce site or app and pay on delivery; the ordering method remains the decisive feature. By contrast, seeing a digital advertisement and then calling a staff member to dictate the order does not make the order itself electronic merely because discovery began online.

Case	Does the order fall within the common statistical definition?	Why
Add an item to a web cart, submit the order, and pay on delivery	Yes	The order mechanism is electronic and purpose-designed; the payment method does not change that.
See a social post, then telephone a staff member and dictate the order	Not in this case	Discovery is digital, but the order itself is placed through a phone call rather than a purpose-designed network ordering function.
Select product and quantity in an app that submits the order to the seller	Yes	The app provides a purpose-designed ordering function.
Send an unstructured manual email to request a product	Commonly separated from purpose-designed ordering methods	The use of a computer network alone is not enough; the ordering method and its design matter.

Who participates in the transaction?

An e-commerce store is not necessarily one party doing everything. A simple case may involve only a seller and buyer, but real operations can include a platform or marketplace intermediary, payment provider, warehouse or fulfilment centre, delivery company, and customer-service team. The important skill is not memorising a list of actors; it is knowing **who owns each step, its data, and its decision**. When delivery fails, for example, the customer needs a clear contact point, while the operating team needs to know who owns the order status, who may change it, and who escalates an exception.

Labels such as B2C and B2B describe the **relationship between commercial parties**, not the channel. A retailer selling to an individual for personal use differs from a supplier selling to an organisation for business use, yet both may use a website, app, or marketplace. Likewise, “marketplace” describes an intermediary pattern that brings parties together and facilitates transactions; it does not automatically mean the marketplace owns inventory or carries every seller obligation. The actual role matters more than the marketing label.

Exercise

Classify the following four cases by ordering method, then give one sentence of justification for each: (1) web cart with payment on delivery; (2) digital ad followed by a telephone order; (3) an in-app “order now” function that submits item, quantity, and address; (4) research the product online, then visit a physical branch and buy at the till. Do not judge channel quality; focus only on where and how the order is placed.

Check your answer

Guided answer: (1) e-commerce order because the ordering function is electronic and purpose-designed; later payment does not change the classification. (2) discovery is digital but the order is by telephone, so the ad alone is insufficient. (3) electronic order because the app performs a dedicated ordering function. (4) research is digital but ordering and purchase occur at the physical point of sale. If a real case differs, state the detail that changes the classification rather than memorising the label.

Lesson summary

Accurate analysis starts with how the order is placed, then separates discovery, payment, and fulfilment. Mapping the actors then makes responsibility and data handoffs explicit and manageable.