While conventional commerce requires both physical contact and exchange, e-commerce needs neither, allowing business transactions such as ordering, invoicing and payments to be executed over the Internet, driving simpler, faster and more efficient business transactions.

The impact of electronic commerce as a productive medium for generating profit and expanding market penetration is revolutionising the standard business model as it stands today. Businesses, under the right circumstances, that have acted fast enough to embrace e-commerce now find themselves one step ahead of their competitors, allowing them to establish market leader positions, and benefiting from a rising learning curve and e-commerce acceptance.

Of the several categories of e-commerce that apply to different industries there are five main types

B2B : Business to Business (e.g. Commerce One)
B2E : Business to Exchanges (e.g. Cisco Electronic data interchange EDI )
B2C : Business to Consumer (e.g. Amazon)
C2C : Consumer to Consumer, (e.g. eBay)
C2B : Consumer to Business, (e.g. Priceline)

How well your e-commerce system works will impact on how your customer service is perceived. FNbox develops proprietary solutions for various levels of e-business applications or implements the RedHat Interchange total e-commerce solution, depending on client requirements.