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Since e-commerce involves various activities such as international trade, exchange of goods across borders in the form of import/export, and finding the right product at the right price in the form of global sourcing; it is clear that all these are commercial activities and require exchange of money. Money or profit making is the key driving force behind international trade in the form of import/export, global sourcing and so forth. Of course traditional methods of money exchange such as physical transfer of funds, cheques, drafts etc are not viable to be used with e-commerce activities.

Hence other forms of exchange are required such as electronic money, paypal, e-money, credit cards, debit cards and so forth. These are being used successfully in various aspects of e-commerce be it international trade, import/export or global sourcing. Wherever money or financial transactions are involved one of the greatest challenges and threats facing both the buyer and the seller is to ensure that money goes to the right person and right place in every transaction so that people are not discouraged to use e-commerce for import/export, international trade and global sourcing.

There exist several technologies which ensure the safety and security of e-commerce which is carried out across in the form of import/export, international trade or global sourcing. The technical details of these technologies related to e-commerce cannot be discussed in this article meant for general public but broadly speaking there are technologies like secure sockets layer and so forth.. Nevertheless it must be remembered that technological safety is only one aspect of the secure transactions, because the most vulnerable aspect in such matters is the human element involved. Needless to say, any transactions in respect of e-commerce, international trade, import/export and global sourcing have the human element and errors of commission or omission by the same can cause trouble sometimes. For example no matter how much secure technology is used to collect credit card information of a client, if the same client gets duped by a fake website and gives out his/her credit card information while carrying out international trade, import/export or global sourcing activities via e-commerce, the secure technology cannot be of much help.

Hence it can be said that e-commerce relies heavily on financial transactions carried out for the purposes of international trade, import/export and global sourcing. Therefore it should be ensured by all possible means that maximum possible security is achieved both from technological and non-technical aspects such as social engineering etc. Only then can e-commerce be accepted far and wide by all and sundry so that its usage in international trade, import/export and global sourcing continues to grow.