E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet. Online stores offer a place for direct retail shopping, with its 24-hour availability, a global reach, the ability to interact and provide custom information and ordering, the Web is rapidly becoming a multibillion dollar source of revenue for the world's businesses. A number of businesses already report considerable success. As early as the middle of 1997, Dell Computers reported orders of a million dollars a day. By early 1999, projected e-commerce revenues for business were in the billions of dollars and the stocks of companies deemed most adept at e-commerce were skyrocketing.

Although many so-called dot.com retailers disappeared in the economic shakeout of 2001, Web retailing at sites such as Amazon.com, CDNow.com, and CompudataOnline.com continues to grow. Electronic retail is a cost-effective, powerful tool for expanding your company to the world, increasing sales by increasing availability and making order taking/making easier.

Thousands of companies that sell products to other companies have discovered that the Web provides not only a 24-hour-a-day showcase for their products but a quick way to reach the right people in a company for more information. Online stores are extremely secure, various mechanisms are used to ensure the privacy and effectiveness of transactions.

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