Analysts who follow e-commerce say it is hard to determine the consequences of waiting. Some believe companies that fail to embrace e-commerce will see growth slow and market share gradually erode. Others predict these companies will simply fail. And companies that don't make it easy to do business with them over the Internet will lose customers to companies that do. The biggest share of commerce online is coming from businesses using Internet connections to sell and buy products from other businesses.
Electronic commerce refers to a wide range of transactions.
Examples include using Web sites or online marketplaces to make sales pitches to potential customers, submit bids or take orders. With the long list of possibilities and benefits, some observers believe that most business transactions will eventually be conducted online. This is why they make such dire forecasts for companies not prepared to participate. The procrastinators will be acquisition fodder if they are lucky, bankrupt if they are not. Hard statistics showing which companies are aggressively embracing e-commerce and which are not are elusive.