My family and I have seen the good, bad and ugly in e-commerce. When things are in stock and what we expected, everything is great. Shipping is another sore subject. You'd better plan ahead and order all at once, because with many vendors you'll pay shipping on each item. At six bucks or so a pop, I could fill the gas tank and take a dozen trips to Wal-Mart and have enough left over for a week.
Returns are twice the fun.
I've found e-commerce to be a glorified catalog order system without the personal service. I feel the hype is over and reality is setting in. That's a frequent trend I see. Most of the time, it has nothing to do with the previous CIO's performance or lack thereof, but is a matter of having a CIO who can understand and execute the new CEO's plans. All too often, these two groups end up at odds with respect to technology, timelines and priorities.