E-Commerce Hardly any business nowadays will survive without presence in cyberspace. Aside from the requisite website that provides information on the company, most have engaged in electronic commerce or e-commerce whereby goods and services can be transacted (ordering, processing, billing, payment, shipping, etc.) online. For small to medium business enterprises developing an e-commerce website may start out small and gradually develop with more facilities and functionalities. A bike store for instance in the local neighborhood has for its target market a limited geographical area thus the e-commerce website can cater first to the local market. But even if the business is small or starting-up, "developing a business over the Internet requires many of the same major activities as starting any other business and the basic business planning are still needed (McNamara, 2009)."

The initial Internet business model for a local neighborhood bike store is an informational website that features what the store and the company is providing (About Us) in terms of both goods (i.e. bikes, parts, accessories) and services (i.e. custom building, repair, installation, maintenance)....

This can comprise of a few web pages but critical amongst these is the "sales catalogue containing photographs (and prices) of its products and services. By putting the material online, the company saved a great deal of time and money: it no longer had to send out a new catalogue every time there was a change in product line or price. (Andrews & Nast, 2000)" Thus, initial sales and marketing can be done and if customers are interested in particular items or services, they can go to the Comments or Dialogue web page to make inquiries or place an order. The Comments or Dialogue web page is linked to an email account of the business owner where responses can be provided to the customers.
Since the business is only starting-up, financial electronic transactions can be foregone at a later date when business is picking up or the website can avail of the services of third-party financial transaction providers such as PayPal to facilitate online payments. These service providers will assist eve the small business in setting up secure electronic financial transactions at varying costs depending on the needs and requirements of the business.

An…