It is worthwhile to note that the newspaper, the telephone, the television and the movies were originally supposed to be media of information and entertainment. Later they succumbed to the logic of business. So it happened with the internet. The internet had academic beginnings and rose because of the need to communicate and transfer information. When it happened that the internet had become sufficiently accepted among the intelligentsia as well as the public, business through the internet became a viable prospect.

Also called e-commerce, it is primarily concerned with the buying, selling, marketing and advertising of products on the internet and other networks. As the main marketing force behind the internet, e-commerce is a tremendously complicated business that might include a variety of activities – online showcasing, electronic fund transfer, supply, storage and packaging, website upgradation and catalog maintenance, data security and collection, etc.

Through use of modern communication media like telephone, computer networks and internet, email, etc, e-commerce tries to establish points of contact for effecting transactions. Many online-only vendors started offering services on the internet, and soon enough other brick-and-mortar retailers saw a niche clientele among internet users, and made their online portals. While e-commerce did not succeed to the extent as initially visualized because of security concerns, frauds, slow dispatch of products, etc, e-commerce has become a viable business prospect today with thousands making purchases online.

E-commerce has many advantages: one can find the best rate; one can do extensive research before buying; one can buy from any part of the world, etc. These make e-commerce, or online commerce as some call it, a successful phenomenon, with sites like Amazon and Ebay reaping much of the windfall. In this section of the webdirectory, we provide links to useful resources, ranging form e-commerce sites, gateways, software and even guidebooks.

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