The lnternet and e-commerce

The Internet service provider or ISP is the organization that provides you with Internet access. You register and open an account, then they give you an email address so that you can communicate by email with other users. (See Unit 53) Some ISPs have their own content - news, information and so on - but many do not. After you log on by entering your user name and password (a secret word that only you know), you can surf to any site on the World Wide Web. If you're looking for a site about a particular subject, you can use a search engine like Google or Yahoo. When you've finished, remember to log off for security reasons.

Clicks-and-mortar
My name's John, and I own a chain of sports shops. Last year, I started an e-commerce operation, selling goods over the Internet. We've done well. Visitors don't have trouble finding what they want, adding items to their shopping cart and paying for them securely by credit card. Last year we had two million unique users (different individual visitors) who generated 35 million hits or page views. That means our web pages were viewed a total of 35 million times! E-commerce or e-tailing has even acted as a form of advertising and increased levels of business in our traditional bricks-and-mortar shops! Pure Internet commerce operations are very difficult. To succeed, I think you need a combination of traditional retailing and e-commerce: clicks-andmortar. In our case, this has also helped us solve the last mile problem, the physical delivery of goods to Internet customers: we just deliver from our local stores!

B2B, B2C and B2G
Selling to the public on the Internet is business-to-consumer or B2C e-commerce. Some experts think that the real future of e-commerce is going to be business-to-business or B2B, with firms ordering from suppliers over the Internet. This is e-procurement.
Businesses can also use the Internet to communicate with government departments, apply for government contracts and pay taxes: business-to-government or B2G.