How do you write 'ecommerce'?

[adamo]

With ecommerce becoming evermore popular these days, I often find myself debating the exact way the phrase could be typed.

Which of the following do you usually use? I'm interested to know which is the most popular, since there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer..

- E-commerce
- Ecommerce
- eCommerce
- ecommerce

 

[Billy Smaug]

Good question! I've been looking for an ecommerce website designer and simply put 'ecommerce' but maybe i should try some of those!

 

[frozentiger]

Electronic commerce was the proper name which was shortend to e-commerce, however it has widely become a word in itself. I have to admit I use eCommerce in my product name but whenever I write about it I use e-commerce.

 

[EcommerceTools]

eCommerce is generally the norm, but I would say there is no set-in-stone way of writing it.

 

[antropy]

It's quite an important issue if you're looking at SEO and you're trying to look professional in your marketing copy. It seems there's no standard so my personal preference is simply, ecommerce.

 

[HazelC]

It depends why you are asking, you're right - it can be written in different ways so if you are offering ecommerce (I'm spelling it this way for now), then you need to spell it all the ways to get picked up by Google as different customers are spelling it in different ways.

 

[YouGavel]

I use e-Commerce and so does this website

 

[wayzgoose]

I think, officially, it is still e-commerce. But as the powers that be are only really reflecting on the use of a word over time I would think it will soon become an option to use ecommerce and then over more time, no doubt e-commerce will begin to disappear.

 

[Dan_HiHosting]

We use eCommerce. Email was previously e-mail. The hyphenation is generally dropped when it enters common usage. There's no "official" standard per se. English is very fluid and doesn't have official standards like French does for example.

@HazelC For SEO it could help to use hyphenated and non hyphenated variations (I don't think capitalisation makes any difference), unfortunately that runs contrary to having professional copy and the general principle of being consistent in your naming.

For that reason we use eCommerce throughout.

However reading this now I do like the look of ecommerce too, and I'd imagine that should become the most common usage - given there's no precedent for capitalisation mid word that I know of.

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

The correct and formal way of saying it is e-commerce.

Google's Ngram Viewer (which lists every mention of selected words in all of Google's archived books) shows that e-commerce is mentioned far more than eCommerce.

E-commerce is also listed in all of the most popular dictionaries and has the highest number of search results in Google (350mill for e-commerce and 120mill for eCommerce), so it's not only the correct word, but also the most popular by some margin.

That being said, whether it has any impact on your sales is a different story. People will only tell you it's wrong if they realise it's wrong themselves, and I suspect that the vast majority of people don't even blink twice whether it's e-commerce or eCommerce.

In practice, they're probably one and the same, but if you would prefer to use the formally correct version, then go with e-commerce.

 

[Dan_HiHosting]

Thanks, and useful post, but it's incorrect to say that e-commerce is correct whilst ecommerce without the hyphenation isn't. It's the same as saying email is incorrect whilst e-mail is. Email is typically now unhyphenated, and ecommerce will likely go that way too as time and usage progresses.

Edit: I personally find e-commerce looks a bit clunky and perhaps antiquated as well. If you're dealing with technology which is meant to be up to the minute for example, then hyphenating e-commerce could send out the wrong message, if not now then certainly in some time. Referring to "e-mail" when you deal with technology for example is rather jarring I find.

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

Thanks, and useful post, but it's incorrect to say that e-commerce is correct whilst ecommerce without the hyphenation isn't. It's the same as saying email is incorrect whilst e-mail is. Email is typically now unhyphenated, and ecommerce will likely go that way too as time and usage progresses.

Edit: I personally find e-commerce looks a bit clunky and perhaps antiquated as well. If you're dealing with technology which is meant to be up to the minute for example, then hyphenating e-commerce could send out the wrong message, if not now then certainly in some time. Referring to "e-mail" when you deal with technology for example is rather jarring I find.

It is correct, actually.

E-commerce stands for electronic commerce. It's a hyphenated word. If you're sticking to the rule book, then you should use e-commerce when you're talking about electronic commerce.

eCommerce has certainly entered common usage, and as I said, most people won't even bat an eyelid at either word. You could call eCommerce a de facto way of saying it, but e-commerce is the most popular, dictionary-defined and logically correct term.

It's basically the safest bet. Someone could dispute eCommerce if they wish to do so, but no one could claim that e-commerce is wrong.

 

[RepricerExpress]

I researched this a while ago. There are many variations in spelling but I believe e-commerce is grammatically correct.

However, I use ecommerce in copy for SEO reasons. Also, we have a large amount of American customers. From my research, l believe Americans tend to opt for ecommerce.

 

[JodieVeeqo]

I've been debating with myself about this too! I usually write "ecommerce", but I actually think eCommerce looks better.

 

[Charlotte Barnes]

I write it as 'ecommerce', just as I write 'email'. Many years ago email had a hyphen which was eventually phased out. Seems logical to me that ecommerce should go the same way.

 

[fastprint.co.uk]

E-commerce

 

[AJA SoftTech]

There are no any specific rules for writing eCommerce. Most of the people are writing as "E-commerce" so go for the same.

 

[japancool]

In Yorkshire, we write "Eee, commerce."

 

[LowPrices.uk]

Was E-Commerce, now becoming ecommerce. Similar to e-mail, now email.

 

[Lenka Pollak]

E-commerce. Google sees all the variations the same, there should be no problem then.

 

[Parcelhub]

Our spellchecker suggests eCommerce or e-commerce so we went with eCommerce, but can't help thinking ecommerce looks cleaner and less fussy. Good question.

 

[Lenka Pollak]

I would suggest eCommerce.

 

[Tom Porter]

I use eCommerce but as Lenka mentioned - Google will recognise all

 

[Chelios]

In the past I've also written it as e-commerce, now I've moved to eCommerce - simply because it looks nicer, and I agree that hyphens tend to get dropped over time.