An overview of e-commerce technologies and challenges

Summary form only given. With the rapid growth of technology, the increasing use of the Internet, and the advancement in information and communications technologies, businesses around the world are increasingly changing the way they do business. Furthermore, with the emergence of the global economy, electronic commerce, e-commerce, is fast being regarded as the way to go global at the touch of a button. This new development is faced with many challenges that include the use of the new technology and communication medium, and the flow of information from enterprise to enterprise, from enterprise to consumers, and also within the enterprise. We discuss the different technology and conceptual components of the e-commerce in general, address the key advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce, and identify and classify the different types of challenges facing e-commerce businesses.