E Commerce, is the facilitation of trading in products or services using Internet. E commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI).

Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce: participants are organizations.

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce: participants are individuals, with one serving as the buyer and the other as the seller

Business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce: customers deal directly with the organization, avoiding any intermediaries

Principles:

• E-commerce is a new way of conducting business, and as with any other new application of technology, it presents both opportunities for improvement and potential problems
• E-commerce requires the careful planning and integration of a number of technology infrastructure components
• Users of e-commerce technology must use safeguards to protect themselves

Multistage Model for E-commerce

• Search and identification
• Selection and negotiation
• Purchasing products and services electronically
• Product and service delivery
• After-sales service

Strategies for successful e-commerce

• Developing an effective Web presence
• Putting up a Web site
• Building traffic to your Web site
• Maintaining and improving your Web site