E-commerce plays a significant and rapidly growing role in the world economy. A key challenge for business leaders is to transform traditional businesses into electronic businesses (e-businesses for short) to reap the full benefits of the Internet. Web designers and developers are responsible for translating their company's bottom-line business needs to the computer screen in the form of a Web site that also meets its customers' needs.
After completing this module, you will be able to define and describe:

1. The Internet business models being used for various types of e-commerce
2. The characteristics of business-to-business sites
3. The characteristics of business-to-consumer sites
4. The characteristics of consumer-to-consumer sites
5. How the Web is being used to facilitate transactions between the buyer and seller
6. The infrastructure required to implement an e-commerce site
7. Issues associated with doing business globally on the Internet

In the next lesson, you will learn how businesses are using the Internet for various types of e-commerce.