As was the case with blogs, electronic commerce (e-commerce) was just in its infancy in 2000, and almost non-existent in 1990. However, over the past 10 years, e-commerce has grown over 300 percent in its total share of retail sales in America, now raking in over $130 billion a year, an amount that is expected to nearly double over the next five years. While still a small fraction of the $3.5 trillion of retail sales in the U.S. annually, e-commerce’s fantastic growth rate means it will have an increasing impact online and in the world. However, open source e-commerce platforms are less prolific than are open source CMSs for blogs and Web sites. continue reading…