The term electronic commerce or e-commerce is used to describe doing business
over the Internet. E-commerce has been described as the new economic paradigm. By 2002,
total e-commerce transactions are projected to exceed $200 billion dollars annually.
A direct, real-time, producer to consumer virtual marketplace will dominate the national
and global economies. Hundreds of thousands of new and agile companies will emerge from
around the globe. Opportunity for prosperity will abound for those prepared to take
advantage of it.
The implications for businesses, both large and small, are clear. E-commerce means
advertising, selling and supporting products and services using a Web Store around
the clock for customers worldwide. The Web Store, or store that works while you sleep, is
not geographically or physically restricted. It has global reach.
There are a number of ways to conduct e-commerce, with varying
levels of sophistication. Visual Horizons offers a number of features and solutions to
help you conduct e-commerce. As a minimum, your web hosting solution should include SSL or
PGP(server-side) encryption for secure transactions. Visual Horizons offers both types of
encryption free with all accounts.
Visual Horizons also offers a comprehensive suite of electronic commerce products and
services which cover all the facets of building and maintaining a Web Store. The
Visual Horizons solution is robust and low cost because at Visual Horizons, we believe
that everyone should have the opportunity to participate in the "global
marketplace."
