E-commerce, in short, is a form of trade that covers all shopping made especially over the internet and taking place completely in a digital environment, and its expanded form is electronic commerce.
Since we have also expanded the definition of e-commerce, let's continue. One of the questions coming to us several times lately is: "I am doing xxx business over the internet. Is this e-commerce? Or is it not?" The interesting thing is that this question was asked consecutively by different people.
Briefly we can say that “if you are earning income over the internet in exchange for goods or services, this falls under e-commerce and must be taxed.”
Still, I have listed which types of services fall or do not fall into the e-commerce category for transactions made over the internet. I hope this can also be helpful in order to answer the question of "what is e-commerce?" in mind.
- Realizing product sales by establishing an e-commerce site: Falls under e-commerce.
- Making product sales by opening a shop on a classifieds site: Falls under e-commerce.
- Making service sales by establishing a standard site (such as SEO, digital advertising): Falls under e-commerce.
- Making sales without establishing any site (product sales via Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook): Falls under e-commerce.
- Essentially targeting the service, but earning income by collecting aid in contrast to this (offering free service like Wikipedia but accepting donations as well): Does not fall under e-commerce.
- Product sales on the condition of collecting donations for the benefit of any association or institution: Falls under e-commerce and must be invoiced.
- Dropshipping (selling without stock): The fact that you do not keep any product in your stocks does not mean you are not doing e-commerce. In case you earn income with the dropshipping method, the work you do falls under e-commerce and requires taxation.
- Distributing files or documents that can be used in a virtual environment in exchange for a fee: Falls under e-commerce.
- Distributing files or documents that can be used in a virtual environment free of charge: Does not fall under e-commerce.
To summarize the topic, if you are earning an income and your purpose in this is to make a profit, the transaction you perform must be legally taxed and it falls under e-commerce, even under trade. However, if you are not earning a profit or merely aiming to collect donations, this transaction does not fall under e-commerce.