The explosion in the use of the Internet has paved the way for several path-breaking innovations. One of the most interesting and exciting aspects of this evolution is the emergence of electronic business (e-business) as a mainstream and viable alternative to more traditional methods of businesses being conducted today. E-business is defined as the process of using electronic technology to do business. It is the day and age of electronic business. Also the structure of the Web is rapidly evolving from a loose collection of Web sites into organized market places. The phenomena of aggregation, portals, large enterprise sites, and business-to-business applications are resulting in centralized, virtual places, through which millions of visitors pass daily.
E-business has become standard operating procedure for the vast majority of companies. Setting up and running an e-business, especially one that processes a large number of transactions, requires technical, marketing and advertising expertise. Consumers like to access to products and services on a 24-by-7 basis, and the easiest way to provide that is to move operations online. The businesses that provide the most reliable, most functional, most user-friendly and fastest services will be the ones that succeed.
E-commerce is the subset of e-business that focuses specifically on commerce. Commerce is the exchange of goods and services for other goods and services or for cash payment. E-commerce is all that a company conducts commerce through electronic technology. Since commerce is clearly a sort of business, all the keys to success for e-business automatically apply for e-commerce also.
E-commerce redefines the very foundations of competitiveness in terms of information content and information delivery mechanisms. Flows of information over international networks have created an electronic market-space of firms that are learning to exploit business opportunities.
A few years ago the only way of buying books is that one has to go to bookstores. Purchasing clothes meant a trip to the malls. Trading of stocks happened through brokers only. Not anymore! Today businesses are coming to our doorstep. A number of companies and large warehouses have successfully managed to put an electronic outlet to traditional businesses.