Electronic commerce, also known as e-commerce, has developed rapidly in the last few years. In this paper, I will talk about the advantages along with the disadvantages of e-commerce. E-commerce consists of many things. People today are aware of the common phrase 'e-commerce', but there is a lot more to it then they are aware of. "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. E-commerce 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 any computer platform" (Edwards, 1998). Putting companies on the Internet to sell products or to organize any type of business has many advantages and disadvantages.
             With the quick growth of the Internet, many companies are finding new and exciting ways to expand their business opportunities. To emphasize the point that the effect of the Internet is so widely spread in today's business communities, one online article I found stated that more than 100,000 companies have Internet addresses, and 20,000 companies have home pages on the Internet as of February 1999 (DataQuest, 1999). These numbers have tripled since 1995, and this growth shows no signs of slowing down.
             To the average web surfer, e-commerce means online shopping. Internet surfers go on the web purchasing anything from books to baseball tickets. 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.
             The Internet was ...