Editing Commerce (section)

==Relation to business and trade==
{{morerefs|section|date=February 2024}}
Despite many similarities (to the extent that they are sometimes used as synonyms in layman's terms and in other contexts), commerce, [[business]] and [[trade]] are distinct concepts.

===Commerce and business===
Commerce deals with buying, selling and distribution of goods and services from producers to customers as well as related matters such as marketing, finance, laws, transportation and insurance.<ref>{{Cite web |title=COMMERCE |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/commerce |website=Cambridge Dictionary |quote=commerce : the activities involved in buying and selling things}}</ref><ref name=OXDICT></ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Cambridge O Level Commerce Coursebook |author= Mary Trigwell-Jones |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2016 |page=19}}</ref>

In a general sense, business is the activity of earning money and making one's living through engaging in commerce.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/business|title=Oxford Living Dictionaries|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190501064740/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/business|archive-date=May 1, 2019|quote=business [:] 2 The practice of making one's living by engaging in commerce.}}</ref> The  difference between business and commerce is that business can also refer to a [[commercial entity]], such as a company.<ref>{{Cite web |title=business |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/business |website=Cambridge Dictionary |quote=business : a particular company that buys and sells goods and services}}</ref> So, in a more specific sense, a business is an organization or activity for making a profit by providing goods and services which meet the needs of its customers or consumers.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://openstax.org/books/introduction-business/pages/1-1-the-nature-of-business |department=Understanding Economic Systems and Business |title=Introduction to Business |page=12 |year=2018 |publisher=Openstax - Rice University}}</ref>

Viewed in this way, commerce is a broader concept and an overall, all-encompassing aspect of business. Commerce provides the underlying large-scale transactional environment comprising all kinds of exchanges within which individual business organizations operate for generating profits.

===Commerce and trade===
Commerce is distinguishable from [[trade]] as well. Trade is the transaction (buying and selling) of goods and services that makes a profit for the seller and satisfies the want or need of the buyer. When trade is carried out within a country, it is called home or [[domestic trade]], which can be [[Wholesaling|wholesale]] or [[retail]]. A wholesaler buys from the producer in bulk and sells to the retailer who then sells again to the final consumer in smaller quantities. Trade between a country and the rest of the world is called foreign or [[international trade]], which consists of [[import]] trade and [[export]] trade, both being wholesale in general.

Commerce not only includes trade as defined above, but also the auxiliary services or aids to trade<ref name=OXDICT/> and means that facilitate such trade. Auxiliary services aid trade by providing services which such as [[transportation]], [[communication]], [[warehousing]], [[insurance]], [[banking]], credit financing to companies, [[advertising]], [[packaging]], and the services of commercial agents and agencies. In other words, commerce encompasses a wide array of political, economical, technological, logistical, legal, regulatory, social and cultural aspects of trade on a large scale. From a [[marketing]] perspective, commerce creates time and place utility by making goods and services available to the customers at the right place and at the right time by changing their location or placement.

Described in this manner, trade is a part of commerce and commerce is an aspect of business.