Initially, online merchants were short for Internet commerce, referring to companies that use the Internet as a medium or tool to engage in business activities, such as Alibaba, Taobao, JD.com, Dangdang, etc. that we are familiar with.

Later, with the rapid development of the Internet, more and more traditional industries began to get involved in or rely on the Internet for business activities, and the concept of online merchants gradually expanded, including those doing network promotion, online consulting, network maintenance, etc., which were gradually included in the concept of online merchants. Now, in order to distinguish the difference between Internet commerce and network operators, generally only companies engaged in Internet-related business are called online merchants, such as Internet finance, mobile Internet, etc. So strictly speaking, those who open online stores cannot be called online merchants.