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E-commerce has been around for quite some time now and has been used in various facets of international trade including import/export of goods and services as well as global sourcing of products and services to find out the best suited option in a particular situation. Every successful phenomenon such as e-commerce certainly gains scientific momentum and business models are developed for the same. These models tend to lend a rigorous basis for further development of the discipline which is necessary for long term sustenance of the same. Since e-commerce is being used extensively in all aspects of import/export business, international trade and global sourcing, it was imperative that different models come up for the description of the same, some of which have been discussed as follows.

Vanity: this refers to websites which are not started with a particular business or commercial motive but rather with an aim of just projecting one's thoughts to the world. This may not seem relevant to international trade, import/export or global sourcing yet their existence in the arena of e-commerce does contribute to the overall scenario of things

Billboard: similar to billboards across the high street, a billboard website simply tends to generate revenue by providing information to potential customers about their products or services while the actual sale/purchase does not occur online but rather it occurs offline away from the virtual world. This certainly can contribute to the development of import/export, global sourcing in context of international trade and e-commerce.

Advertising: this model is similar to that used in media such as television and radio wherein all the revenues are generated by advertising different products and services. Obviously trade in any form be it international trade, import/export or global sourcing does play an important role via the technology of e-commerce

Subscription: in these sorts of websites revenue is generated by subscription which is paid either on weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly basis as the case may be. E-commerce certainly makes use of this model in promoting products far and wide which is useful for import/export, international trade and global sourcing.

Storefront: these are the websites which sell actual products in the form of electronic catalogue. Needless to say e-commerce tends to play a most active role in this model by getting utilized in international trade, import/export and global sourcing.

So we can see that the five business models can be extrapolated to fit most of the websites, although most websites cannot be framed into a single of these models, rather it is a combination of more than one model. Whatever the case, these business models do provide an important theoretical background to the practical realities of e-commerce in the form of international trade, exchange of goods via import/export or global sourcing.