e-commerce

noun

e-com·​merce ˈē-ˌkä-(ˌ)mərs How to pronounce e-commerce (audio)
often attributive
: commerce conducted via the Internet

Examples of e-commerce in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Chicago e-commerce consulting firm Brick Meets Click noted online grocery sales in the U.S. slipped 1.2% last year to $95.8 billion. Alexander Coolidge, The Enquirer, 21 Apr. 2024 These e-commerce sites are operated under different terms and privacy policies than ABC. Claire Peltier, ABC News, 19 Apr. 2024 More than a decade after its inception, Rucker Roots is booming, both via e-commerce and on big box retailer shelves—the sisters just announced a major distribution deal with Walmart—but the journey to success wasn’t streamlined. Jasmine Browley, Essence, 19 Apr. 2024 Sharpe got a Robby from a $14 blind box once—another collector is now selling the same one on e-commerce platform Mercari for $200. Jasmine Li, Fortune, 19 Apr. 2024 The Wall Street Journal reports that the project started in 2015 as a way to compare the experiences of third-party sellers on Amazon to those of e-commerce rivals, and quickly morphed into a means of snooping on competitors, especially Walmart. Laura Bratton, Quartz, 18 Apr. 2024 Still, due to the outsized influence and reach of China’s e-commerce platforms, premium brands can’t afford to walk away, said Angelito Perez Tan, Jr., co-founder and CEO of RTG Group Asia, which operates businesses including a luxury consultancy. Bloomberg, Fortune Asia, 17 Apr. 2024 Her story began in an untraditional way: Here is a young author, plucked from obscurity by a powerful app’s algorithm during a conveniently timed e-commerce push and turned into a best-selling phenom. Caroline Mimbs Nyce, The Atlantic, 17 Apr. 2024 Shares of genetics-testing company 23andMe Holding Co. and e-commerce firm Grove Collaborative Holdings have also slumped more than 90% since merging with Virgin Group’s own SPACs as recently as 2022. Ben Stupples, Fortune Europe, 9 Apr. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'e-commerce.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1993, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of e-commerce was in 1993

Dictionary Entries Near e-commerce

Cite this Entry

“E-commerce.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/e-commerce. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.

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