Why a firms oline inventory control system is an example of e-business rather than e-commerce. What is the key factor in determining if a transaction is commerce

E-business is a wider term, it refers to the business conducted online. It not only includes the buying and selling of products, but rather includes all the functions done online, example: maintaining inventory records, maintaining customer data, maintaining payroll, etc:

E-commerce is a kind of subset to e-business. E-commerce shall only refer to buying and selling of products online and do not include adjacent activities. It is of various types, business to business, business to consumer, etc:

When determining that a transaction is commerce it shall be considered as the purpose of such transaction, if the purpose is to buy and sell the product with direct link, it is commerce. Direct link means that the transaction should be for buying and selling and not the adjacent activity to that, maintaining inventory is an adjacent activity and not direct buying or selling thus, it is not business, it is commerce.