In E-Commerce Basics, the authors introduce the basic technological infastructure and business issues to understand when analyzing the feasibility of e-commerce initiatives. The book uses a layered approach that first presents the basic Web technology that supports all e-business, then presents the e-commerce business issues, and then revisits the technology to discuss the challenges in bringing businesses on to the Web. Since the Web was not created for business purposes, the issues of combining business applications in a technical environment are examined, including cybercrime, cyberterrorism, security, and privacy.

This layered approach gives the reader an understanding of the underlying infrastructure and shows the relevance of traditional business issues and models, such as profit and return on investment, to modern e-commerce. The layered approach makes it easy to grasp the strengths, limitations, and implications of various e-commerce solutions.