EDI and E-commerce or E-business

Today the most common use of the term e-commerce (or e-business) is to refer to the buying and selling of goods on the Internet.  A more specific usage of the term e-commerce and one that pre-dates the explosion of the Internet is the processing of business transactions using electronic communications.  During the earliest days of EDI, suppliers often established a direct connection with their retail trading partner to send and receive purchase orders and invoices.  The introduction of Value Added Networks provided a secure means for communication without the need to establish direct connections.  Today's EDI transactions often travel via the Internet and this process is sometimes referred to as B2B E-Commerce.

In the News

Supply & Demand Chain: The Online Buyer-Seller Disconnect. Industrial buyers are shopping on the web but suppliers may be missing the sale. (06.09.2006)

Computerworld: Report: Most B2B Web sites fail when it comes to selling. Even though there is substantially more money to be made through business-to-business Web sites compared to business-to-consumer Web sites, most B2B sites offer a far worse user experience than consumer sites, according to the San Francisco-based Nielsen Norman Group. (06.05.2006)

			For More Information

Contact the EDI Center:

         310.356-7618