Is an e-commerce business a tech-start up?

Full disclosure: I'm far from a hacker/techie. If my terminology is off or I'm over using the word tech, lol, please feel free to correct me, I am eager to learn within this arena.

I am someone fascinated by the idea of creating a start-up using tech, but I have no tech background or experience. I can design a pretty snazzy, aesthetically pleasing site using templates etc., but wouldn't know where to begin to build one from the ground up. I have an AMAZING e-commerce start-up idea (don't we all though?!). I've tried shopify and similar sites to build a template of what the site would look like, but there are numerous web components I want to add which go beyond the scope of what they offer. I want to have someone come on board to help with that side, and have started looking into a few of those founder-matching sites.

I'm curious as to what people on the other side of the fence might think. Would an e-commerce business be considered a tech start-up? Are they the type of projects a hacker/techie would get behind. Or is it more something you just hire out for an initial build?