Business Administration and E-Commerce

Essay by Stripes2219University, Bachelor'sA+, December 2004

download word file, 4 pages 3.0

With the astonishing growth of the Internet, many companies are finding new and exciting ways to expand upon their business opportunities. There are very few successful companies that do not use computers in their everyday business activities, which also means there are few companies that do not use e-commerce. "To most casual Internet surfers, e-commerce means online shopping; workaholics pointing their web browser to Amazon.com to order an emergency present because they forgot someone's birthday again." (Weiss, 1999) Fortunately, there is much more to e-commerce than most see.

Simply put, e-commerce is the exchange of business information between two or more organizations. An example of this would be buying and selling products or services over the Internet. E-commerce became very popular soon after it proved to be an efficient means to conduct long distance transactions. The purpose of this report is to discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce, as well as examining its potential for the future of business and career opportunities.

Electronic commerce or e-commerce has developed very rapidly in the last few years and has left some people wondering what it is all about. "Most people think e-commerce is just about buying and selling things over the Internet." (Wareham, 2000) E-commerce is a broad term describing the electronic exchange of business data between two or more organizations' computers. Some examples might be the electronic filing of an income tax return, on-line services like Prodigy, and on-line billing for services or products received. E-commerce also includes buying and selling any item over the Internet, electronic fund transfer, smart cards, and all other methods of conducting business over digital networks. "The primary technological goal of e-commerce is to integrate businesses, government agencies, and contractors into a single community with the ability to communicate with one another across...