e-commerce is also known as Electronic commerce and EC. It mainly consists of distributing, buying, selling, marketing, and servicing of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. It can involve electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, e-marketing, online marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), automated inventor management systems, and automated data collection systems.



Historical development of e-commerce web hosting:

electronic commerce when introduced actually meant meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, usually using technology like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). electronic or e in e-commerce or e-business refers to the technology/systems which are often used in it companies. The other forms of e-commerce web hosting are the credit cards, Automated Teller Machines (ATM) and telephone banking. from the 1990s enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing have been included. In the "dot com" era there were a few activities included such as Web commerce" -- the purchase of goods and services over the World Wide Web via secure servers (note HTTPS, a special server protocol which encrypts confidential ordering data for customer protection) with e-shopping carts and with electronic payment services, like credit card payment authorizations.

Problems:

As there goes a saying without probems there is no success. 1. Failiur to understand the competitive situation is something that is a common mistake. Lack the capability to compete. 2. Failure to understand customers, what they buy and why they buy. If the producers and retailers do not understand customer habits, expectations, and motivations then even a small product can fail to be sold. 3. Predict environmental reaction: inability to do this can prove very fatal. There should be so many questions arising such as ? What will competitors do? ? Will they introduce competitive brands or competitive web sites? ? Will they supplement their service offerings? ? Will they try to sabotage a competitor's site? ? Will price wars break out? ? What will the government do? 4. co-ordination is very important in any field. 5. obtaining of senior management commitment is also lacking. 6. employee commitment: fail to give employees the whole picture and not able to explain their strategy well to employees. 7. plan: this is something that every person needs to have. initial planning can help from going into losses.

Acceptance:

People have accepted the e-commerce web hosting business model less readily than its proponents originally expected. electronic shopping has developed slowly. 1. There is always a lack of instant gratification is another thing which companies need to work on. 2. Security: not using of credit cards is because of on line theft and credit card fraud. 3. When it comes to on line shopping social reward side of retail therapy does not exist. 4. There are some eCommerce web sites which are Poorly designed, bug-infested which frustrate the shoppers.

Literature:

1. E-Commerce-induced Change in Logistics and Transport Systems- Georg Erber, Peter Klaus und Ulrich Voigt. 2. Electronic Commerce: A Need for Regulation?- Stefan Bach und Georg Erber. 3. "Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy,"- Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian. 4. "Blueprint to the Digital Economy: Creating Wealth in the Era of E-Business,"- this has been edited by, Don Tapscott, Alex Lowy and David Ticoll, Associate Editor: Natalie Klym. 5. "Electronic Commerce: Technical, Business, and Legal Issues,"- Nabil R. Adam, Oktay Dogramaci, Aryya Gangopadhyay and Yelena Yesha. 6. "Improving Data Warehouse and Business Information Quality: Methods for Reducing Costs and Increasing Profits,"- Larry P. English.

People offering services to e-commerce practitioners: Software:

1. ATG. 2. Cubecart. 3. ECommerce Shopping Cart. 4. eMeta Corporation. 5. Ingenta. 6. NetSuite Inc. 7. osCommerce. 8. Shop-Script. 9. Zen Cart. 10. Microsoft Commerce Server.

Entities using electronic commerce:

1. Amazon.com 2. eBay 3. exostar 4. MercadoLibre.com 5. Newegg.com 6. Nuvvo 7. Overstock.com 8. Quixtar.com 9. rediff.com 10. Smarthome 11. Uship

Financial:

1. iBill 2. Moneybookers 3. PayPal 4. WebMoney 5. Yahoo! 6. Google Checkout