Chapter 1
Introduction

Internet is changing the way consumers shop and buys goods and services, and has rapidly evolved into a global phenomenon. Many companies have started using the Internet with the aim of cutting marketing costs, thereby reducing the price of their products and services in order to stay ahead in highly competitive markets. Companies also use the Internet to convey, communicate and disseminate information, to sell the product, to take feedback and also to conduct satisfaction surveys with customers.
Customers use the Internet not only to buy the product online, but also to compare prices, product features and after sale service facilities they will receive if they purchase the product from a particular store. Many experts are optimistic about the prospect of online business. In addition to the tremendous potential of the E-commerce market, the Internet provides a unique opportunity for companies to more efficiently reach existing and potential customers. Although most of the revenue of online transactions comes from business-to-business commerce, the practitioners of business-to-consumer commerce should not lose confidence. It has been more than a decade since business-to-consumer E-commerce first evolved. Scholars and practitioners of electronic commerce constantly strive to gain an improved insight into consumer behavior in cyberspace. Along with the development of E-retailing, researchers continue to explain E-consumers’ behavior from different perspectives. Many of their studies have posited new emergent factors or assumptions that are based on the traditional models of consumer behavior, and then examine their validity in the
Internet context.

E-commerce is already quite popular in Bangladesh and it is only increasing. Compared to other countries of the world, E-commerce came at a later stage in our country but it