worldwide market for business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce and marketing will total $3.1 trillion in 2004 as compared to $350.4 billion in fiscal 2000-2001. Among the most profitable products and services sold online are consumer goods such as books, videos, music, computers and other tech products, and travel (Schmerken, 2001). Other profitable sectors include investment transactions, which Schmerken (2001) considers to have generated a wave of corporate spending on e-commerce.
A positive bottom line, in the view of Sliwa (2002), may not be as easily achieved as e-commerce professionals and companies hope. Sliwa (2002) considers the high cost of entry for e-commerce to be a factor likely to inhibit any immediate or dramatic increase in the number of retailers in the business-to-consumer sector who are using the Web as a major sales locus.
Sliwa (2002) also stated that e-commerce sales typically account for about 1 percent of total retail sales in the United States. Companies such as Lane Bryant, B
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