So you want to get involved in E-commerce

Abstract The paper examines the issues that must be considered before a firm embarks to develop a successful web business. The paper presents five types of organizational strategies for using the Internet as a marketing tool. Issues related to business-to-business (B2B) marketing and the use of Internet in international business follow in the next two sections. The fourth part probes the unique challenges of developing a successful Internet marketing plan. Each of the four P's (product, place, promotion and price) is discussed in detail. Particular attention is paid to a variety of online and offline promotional activities and pricing strategies. The paper concludes with a discussion of cost of building a website and some problems associated with conducting business over the web. The problems include the issues of security and privacy, and information overload. This paper is for those who think that a Java script is something one gets at Starbucks, yet are curious to wet their feet in Internet marketing.