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Multi-user E-commerce "90% of online shoppers want some sort of human interaction in the process" —Jupiter Communication E-Commerce is the practice of buying and selling products and services over the Internet, utilizing technologies such as the Web, electronic data interchange, email, electronic fund transfers, and smart cards. As e-commerce continues to grow, it becomes clear that human interaction is a necessary (yet mostly lacking) component to the online buying experience. While only 40% of shopping transactions started online are completed (Internet World September, 2002), an even smaller percentage of people who visit a site even attempt to make a purchase. The ability to ask a question—something that we take for granted in most brick-and-mortar shopping experiences—has largely been ignored in the online world. This phenomenon is now beginning to change as e-commerce developers take advantage of multiuser capabilities to add human interaction to their sites. Background of E-commerce To better understand this idea of multi-user e-commerce we must first look at how this technology began. Electronic commerce was built on a foundation that was started more than 125 years ago with Western Union's money tr