Information Technology (IT) revolution has been widely touted as having equal if not greater impact than the industrial revolution. The application of e-commerce brought a sea change in the way business functions. E-commerce is the on looking trend be it a fund raising activity or product selling. It has completely taken over all business modes. It gives a complete solution for everyone. Yes, it is the right option for anyone to start with a business endeavor and get it rolling with an easy cost effective setup to comprehensive and expensive one. You need to identify an e-commerce solution that suits your need, technology and budget. So make a move with proper foresight and long-term plan to succeed in this virtual business venture. But before proceeding lets know this business essential basic.

By definition electronic commerce or e-commerce is the purchasing or selling of goods or services and the transfer of funds in any way using electronic communications in inter-company and intra-company business activities.

An e-commerce solution is a solution to conduct business using technology, through an intra-, extra- or Internet solution. Ecommerce or electronic commerce is usually subdivided into B2B (business to business: wholesale), B2C (business to customer: retail) and C2C (customer to customer: auctions and information portals). Much more demanding — and not usually served by off-the-shelf software — is e-business or electronic business, where information technology is applied to all aspects of company's operations.

In e-business are found systems for CRM (customer resource management), ERP (enterprise resource planning), SFM (sales force management), SCM (supply chain management) and EP (electronic procurement). But what has changed the attitude of ecommerce merchants and investors. Gone are the days of equating ecommerce with immediate profit. Ecommerce is a business, and a demanding business at that.

Electronic commerce offers promise to firms interested in using Internet as yet another vehicle of business. However, the marketing executive should be familiar with the steps necessary to make their online presence visible. Many companies have a website that fulfills one or more marketing functions tailored to their business specialties. These sites feature one or more of the following characteristics.

People who shop online are most familiar with this type of website. A transactional site may be an electronic storefront for a brick-and-mortar retailer or a catalog business, or a manufacturer showroom for those wishing to sell directly to the public. Transactional sites conduct full “end-to-end” transactions via the website, allowing customers to search for, order, and pay for products online as well as allowing them to contact the company for after-sales service. The most sophisticated sites create efficiencies by integrating the transaction process with back-office systems such as accounting, inventory, sales and others.

These sites generate sales by promoting corporate awareness rather than facilitating online transactions. Its function is similar to a brochure, providing information about the product or service and contact information on how to proceed with a purchase. Because this site is often static and doesn’t require the software systems necessary for online transactions, it is less expensive to design and maintain than the transactional site. An information delivery site is ideal for companies that market products and services that cannot be provided online or goods that cannot be sold online.

These sites are market-makers- they bring buyers and sellers together to facilitate transactions. Participation in a brokerage often provides an efficient way of finding a customer without the expense of building a proprietary transactional website. Types of brokerages include auctions (e.g. eBay), virtual malls and matching services. Future opportunities which may arise for businesses are in the area of electronic payment and using Internet as a new media of advertising. Opportunities for individuals will be in IT and computer sectors. In conclusion, Electronic Commerce will be the way we will do business in the new millennium. It is useful for everybody to have at least the basic knowledge of Electronic Commerce. One who dismisses the Web will find himself dismissed in the future. It is not a matter of choice it is a matter of survival.

Although the hype behind the Internet boom has subsided, few question the importance of having a website. Even in today’s challenging economic backdrop, websites have become as ubiquitous as phone numbers. The reason for having a website is now much more rational as the features that are being included are weighed by how much benefit they bring to the bottom-line.

Today’s websites provide instant access to product catalogs, allow for customer self-service, and serve as useful distribution points for customer and field information. More advanced sites allow for real-time order status, shipment tracking, and two-way channel management for all kinds of businesses and industries. The value of the Internet is clear and it is certainly not hype. Those who have invested wisely have reaped the benefits of having a world-class website – reduced costs and increased revenues. In today’s scenario website is a benchmark for assessing the overall face value of the business.

“If you have a business, you should have a website.”

The problem is that many sites are on their second or third generation. This is an expensive proposition. A properly conceived and implemented website is not a small project. In order to reap the benefits, though, the website has to have a lifespan that allows it to generate a return on investment.

The issue with this, however, is that the web is a very dynamic environment where information needs to change rapidly; and the perceived value of any website is predicated on that very fact. The perceived value of a website is similar to the value of a daily newspaper – If the headlines and all of the articles are not different each morning, there is very little incentive to read or purchase the newspaper.

While your company’s website may not need to have content refreshed with daily frequency, the nature of the web, and the expectations of web visitors, do demand higher refresh rates than most websites maintain.

Hence, the dilemma – how do you keep a website stable enough to generate a return on investment while also supporting the requirement for fresh updates and frequent changes?