My favorite topic from the information systems class was the topic on e-commerce, because I think that e-commerce is the future of retail and it is a big part of the Internet traffic. If I was going to try to describe e-commerce to an upcoming student, I would start by describeing that e-commerce is the use of the Internet to do business. The Major differences between e-commerce and standard brick and mortar stores is that e-commerce is available at all times, 24 hours a day, and its global, you can buy items from any country at any time. There are different business models for e-commerce. The portal is the gateway to the rest of the Internet, like Google or Yahoo. The e-tailor are online retail stores like target.com or bestbuy.com. Content providers are sites that provide content, like iTunes. Transaction brokers are sites that process transactions for customers that are normally handled in person, like etrade.com. Market creators are sites where people can get together to sell things, like ebay.com. There are also many different ways to make money with e-commerce. One of the most widely used revenue models is the sales model, where you make money by selling items or digital goods. Another revenue model is advertising, where you allow free access to your web site, and there are adds on the site that company's pay you to put there. There are also subscriptions, where users are charged a monthly fee, and freemimum sites, were the majority of the content is free, but you can pay for bonus content. With all these different ways to make money online, more and more company's are using the web and the Internet to supplement there revenue, and e-commerce is an ever growing area. 

What are your thoughts on this?