There are a number of different types of organizations and activities related to the virtual economy. As Townsend, DeMarie and Hendrickson (2008) notes, "The World Wide Web has revolutionized the way we learn, work, and live our lives" (p. 2). This is why distinctions related to these activities and organizations like E-commerce and E-business are useful and significant. Distinctions help make communication, especially with new technologies and terminology, clearer and more effective. E-commerce generally refers to activities and organizations that sell to consumers via the Internet. E-commerce generally equates to the variety of activities involved with organizations who sell products or services and interaction with consumers, whether sales, feedback, or on-line marketing promotions.
E-business is somewhat different in that E-business generally refers to any variety of activities that may occur between sender and recipient, both of them business organizations or employees. This can include selling (such as purchasing from virtual vendors or from brick-and-mortar vendors who offer a purchasing Web site), but it may also include non-sales transactions like business feedback, negotiations, the sharing of information and other transactions. Sometimes this is even referred to as business-to-business E-commerce, when it involves interaction between business organizations (e.g. sellers and suppliers) apart from regular consumers.
There is any number of forces responsible for driving E-commerce, from the spread of Internet and mobile technologies and growing consumer familiarity with Web sites and shopping online to business searching for ways to reduce the costs of doing business from warehousing inventory to marketing costs. The advent of new technologies has certainly driven E-commerce, including wireless technologies and multimedia Web storefronts. Changing employee demands and needs like "career ...