Electronic Commerce has become a critical component of just about any type of business strategy. While selling goods and services online may seem to be a simple process, it is fraught with complexity. Without the proper strategy and development plan, even the most experienced companies can make the wrong decisions and cripple their firm's competitive position in the market.

Some Statistics

CONSUMER INDICATORS

Internet traffic has doubled every 100 days and Internet commerce will likely surpass $300 billion 2002.

In 1994, a mere 3 million people were connected to the Net. By the end of last year, more than 100 million were using it.

The Net is growing faster than all other technologies that before it. Radio existed for 38 years before it had 50 million listeners, and television took 13 years to reach that mark. The Internet crossed the line in just four years.

Some 10 million people in the United States and Canada had purchased something on the Web by the end of 1997, up from 4.7 million people six months earlier.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

In the last five years, information technologies have been responsible for more than a quarter of real economic growth.

Information technology now makes up more than 8 percent of the U.S. economy. Computer and communications industries are growing at more than double the rate of the economy.

Declining prices of information technology products lowered overall inflation by one full percentage point last year. 7.4 million people working in this field, earning close to $46,000 annually — 64 percent more than the private sector average. Workers in the software and service industries are the highest wage earners, at almost $56,000 annually.