What is Ecommerce?

1998 was the year of e-Christmas. Hundreds of million dollars were spent online that year, and the gifts sent directly to recipients, without ever setting foot in a store. Convenient? You bet. Sale and secure, so that your credit card information doesn't get disseminated to 50,000 of your closest friends? Depends on the company take varying precautions to safeguard you. When they send you to the site to give your personal information, you will be informed through a dialog box that you are entering a secure site. If you don't get this dialog box, Don't give your credit card number! NEVER send your credit card number through an unsecured site.

How does it work? Differently for different companies. Some companies are entirely online, meaning that they have no store into which someone can walk and peruse their products. An example of that type of business is Amazon.com, which bills itself as the world's largest online bookstore.

Some businesses maintain an online presence for their customer's convenience. For example, when I recently brought a microwave oven that was missing its manual, I was able to go to the company's web site and download and print a copy. Companies like that do not sell anything online, but rather refer you to their local representative when you enter your zip code.

Some businesses only have their name and phone number and/or snail mail address, basic contact information, online, so that they can say they have a web presence. The sites can cost a few dollars or a million dollars, depending on the depth of the pockets of the company. In the ecommerce links document I refer you to several online company sites, as well as links to articles about ecommerce, so that you can check out this trend for yourself.

Other portions of the ecommerce trend have to do with the convenience and inexpensive cost of doing business online. For example, you can trade stocks online, through many brokerage houses, for as little a $9.98 per trade. The catch? Well, you won't get the service you would sitting in a fancy Wall Street office, but if you know what you want to buy, go for it!

Still other companies are taking their customer service business segments online, so that the cost of 24/7 service is greatly decreased. You leave a message, they email you an answer, and only if you require further information is personal contact initiated. Simple and effective.

At this point, click your browser's back button twice to return to the front page of this section, and click once on Handheld and other Wireless connectivity to go on with the section. Or, click once, then explore the ecommerce links before you go on. Your choice! See you there...