With electronic commerce growing exponentially, staying competitive through an effective e-business strategy is a tough challenge. Electronic commerce represents one of the most promising directions for generating competitive advantage at the micro level of the organization and for increasing productivity at the macro level of the economy. This is a study of the critical fundamental elements that could impact a user's perception of business-to-business and business-to-consumer electronic commerce. It examines key components and concepts of e-commerce, evaluating the critical success factors of global e-commerce, the economics of e-commerce, and the practical issues involved with e-commerce in various applications.