The financial press report almost daily on the sale or flotation of web companies, so-called ‘dot coms’, turning their owners into millionaires. Indeed it sometimes seems that the Internet belongs to the young entrepreneur. However e-commerce presents challenges and opportunities which all companies must address if they are not to be left behind in cyberspace.
So what actually is ‘e-commerce’? A somewhat dry definition is ‘any form of business or administrative transaction or information exchange executed using any information and communications technology’. In practice, e-commerce utilises established processes such as bar code scanning and electronic data interchange (EDI) with more innovative technology including email, the Internet, the World Wide Web and mobile electronic communications in everyday situations.
