A full solution example would be Boston-based Viant Corp., a provider of complete Web site development. Friedrich says companies must take advantage of customer information in their e-commerce models. Many existing retailers have done a notoriously poor job of utilizing customer information to date. And existing businesses of many kinds still tend to think of the Web as just a new channel, when, in reality, it is going to become their business. Message boards and chat sessions are ways to build communities.
Content refers to information conveyed over the Web.
News stories and stock quotes are two examples. Commerce is when consumers or businesses pay money to purchase physical goods, information or services that are posted or advertised online. Haim Mendelson, a James Irvin Miller professor of information systems at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., uses a grid to compare electronic business models. Vachani also cautions that customers can be lured away by sites that offer the same product at a lower price. One way is to invest so much money that you create barriers to market entry by others.