For businesses that depend on e-commerce, one of the greatest problems is the loss of personal contact with their customers. For many small enterprises, the thing that sets them apart from larger corporations is their ability to deliver a personal touch.

The big advantage of advertising online is that it provides a reach unrivalled, certainly in terms of its affordability, by most other media. Its national (and international) coverage means that smaller businesses can compete with their larger rivals without having recourse to the sort of advertising budgets demanded by such conventional media as the press and television.

It is tempting to think that if your computer system is fulfilling its function upgrading it is an unnecessary expense, but technology is changing so fast that if you fail to keep up you might find that a competitor is able to do the same work at a much lower cost.

Ensure that before you buy an e-commerce software package that it has the correct features for you.

Millions of staff in the UK now have access to the internet at work, and it seems that not all of them use it exclusively for work-related purposes.

Writing for websites requires different skills from those needed for printed publications.