The E-Commerce Book: Building the E-Empire (Second Edition)
by Steffano Korper and Juanita Ellis
Academic Press, 2001
Hardback, 248 pages

The E-Commerce Book, now in its second edition, provides a good overview of e-commerce for the e-business novice.

This is the first book I've seen that conceptualizes the three e-commerce approaches: consumer-to-consumer (e.g., eBay auctions), business-to-consumer (retail), and business-to-business (wholesale or procurement). All three are increasingly important sales channels for businesses.

Successive chapters give basic information about online demographics, marketing and branding, website design, and customer service. Unlike many similar volumes, The E-Commerce Book discusses the particular needs of B2B as well as B2C companies for shipping, payment systems, computer infrastructure, and e-commerce software. The book concludes with a chapter on security and wireless e-commerce.

For a newly published book, I found some of the information weak and dated. For example, the authors' description of e-commerce software options is spotty, and omits many of the major software solutions available for both small and larger businesses. The chapter on payment systems seems dated, with a section on SET (secure electronic transaction) that is considered pretty dead these days.

I would recommend this book for executives of medium-sized companies that are new to e-commerce and are seeking an overview.

You may purchase the book at a discount from Amazon.com with this link:
US: http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0124211615/wilsoninternetse
CA: http://chapters.ca/Affiliates/ItemPage.asp?producttype=1&affid=104410&ISBN=0124211615
UK: http://amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0124211615/732
DE: http://amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/0124211615/wilsonweb

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