The term retail as it is used today often refers to both traditional in-store retail and electronic commerce or ecommerce. E-commerce refers to the sale or purchase of goods or services, conducted over computer-mediated networks. The goods and services are ordered over those networks, but the payment and the ultimate delivery of the good or service may be conducted on or off-line.

New technologies continue to influence the ecommerce industry creating new forms of e-commerce such as mobile commerce (commerce mediated through mobile devices) or social commerce (the use of social networks to drive commerce)