The eCo Specification does not attempt to replace these standards. It provides a means for businesses to identify each other, discover each others' product and service offerings, and quickly access a description of the e-commerce standards and trading practices each potential partner has adopted. The eCo Specification elevates integration from the systems level to the business level by enabling a business to present a clean and stable interface to its business partners despite changes in its internal technology implementation, organization, or processes. Potential trading partners only need to describe what they do instead of agreeing on what they do or how they will do it. They are not required to adopt the entire eCo Specification to achieve compliance.
Specification consists of an architecture and a set of semantic recommendations.
The eCo Semantic Recommendation provides guidelines and recommendations for creating e-commerce semantic types and definitions. The use of shared semantics is essential for automated functioning of an e-commerce system. These principles and standards are described in detail below, and include, for instance, the use of current and emerging Internet and e-commerce standards wherever feasible, enabling international language support, and creating an architecture that is extensible to meet the changing needs of businesses in different markets.