Using the initial cost of building an electronic commerce site to make decision about launching online business activities can be misleading web technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace and most businesses want to take advantage of what that technology offers to remain competitive most experts agree that the annual cost to maintain and improve a site once it is up and running whether it is a small site or a lager site will be between 50 percent and 200 percent of its initial cost thus ongoing maintenance costs can be a more significant factor in making implementation decisions than the initial cost of building a site.