Electronic Commerce, EC, or e-commerce, is the use of documents in electronic form, rather than paper, to conduct business transactions. An example of e-commerce is the direct deposit of your salary from your employers account into your bank account, eliminating the need for traditional paper checks. E-commerce gives consumers and businesses greater flexibility as to when and how transactions are conducted.
Electronic Data Interchange, or EDI, is an essential component of e-commerce. EDI is the computer-to-computer transmission of strictly formatted messages that represent e-commerce transactions.