ONCE you are connected to the Internet, you will have your own e-mail address. This means you will be able to receive and send e-mails. It’s even better if you have an e-mail address combined with your domain name, as it looks much more professional, and gives your e-mailing efforts extra weight.

These e-mails can be a very potent weapon in your e-commerce arsenal.

In the real world, businesses have to spend huge sums of money to stay in touch with their customers, to send them letters or to call them by telephone. On the Internet all it takes is an e-mail.

You can use e-mails to confirm orders after a customer has added products to your shopping cart, let customers know about the status of their order or provide customer service to customers who want to know more about a product or have other questions.

It is also possible to use e-mail to promote your products. However this can be fraught with dangers, if done incorrectly.

This is because by sending product information out to customers without their approval, you could be regarded as spamming them - the Internet term for flooding people with junk mail.

You will have to decide if the returns are worth offending some of your customers.

Also keep in mind that there are laws in place in different countries which regulate email promotions. Be sure to comply with them.