The simple word ecommerce means many different things to many different people. To some of us, ecommerce means the ability to buy that great new book at 4 in the morning from our favorite online bookstore. To others, ecommerce means cleaning out the closet and making some money by putting those unwanted treasures up for sale at our favorite online auction house. To others, ecommerce means the ability to have different businesses connect seamlessly and cost efficiently, and the business to business world of ecommerce is one of the fastest growing segments of the market.

Ecommerce allows suppliers to easily connect with buyers of finished products, and business people to easily compare prices and quality among different suppliers. The Internet also provides a wealth of information, and this information is an integral part of the ecommerce solution.

When the Internet first emerged on the scene, it was used by government agencies as a secure way to communicate with one another. Even when the Internet became the province of ordinary users, it was mostly a playground for college students and computer geeks. It took quite some time for the commercial potential of the Internet to be exploited, and the first ecommerce companies were quite primitive by today's standards. Some of those first ecommerce companies are still around and stronger than ever, while others failed to make a profit. Anyone interested in opening an ecommerce business of their own would do well to study the history of ecommerce and the Internet for important lessons.

Despite the bursting of the Internet bubble, ecommerce continues to have nearly unlimited potential for smart entrepreneurs. In fact, the world of ecommerce offers so many advantages over traditional brick and mortar businesses that it simply cannot be ignored. While a brick and mortar business needs to rent space and hire employees, a start up ecommerce business can be run from a single computer as a one man or one woman operation. Many of the most successful ecommerce businesses got their start in just such a manner, and more and more ecommerce startups are born every day.

There have been a great many changes in the world of business over the last couple of decades, but perhaps no change has been more important than that of the Internet. The World Wide Web has become so important in our lives that many of our children could not conceive of a world without it. Business has been changed in many ways by the power of technology, affecting everything from the way we get hired to the way we do our jobs.