E-commerce does not necessarily mean conducting commerce through the Internet, but also includes other forms of electronic communication. Technologies like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) predate the advent of e-commerce using the Internet and put the foundations for the growth of e-commerce we see today. The point here is that these older and high-powered technologies have been used to connect one business house to one another business.
The protocols used for communication between the business houses were point-to-point. But the recent advances accomplished in e-commerce allows for a one-to many or many-to-many approach and thus help to expand greatly any single business to any number of businesses throughout the world.