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There is an old saying about 'building a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door'. Unfortunately, in e-commerce that is a long way from the truth. The reality is that your expensive, brilliant, all singing, all dancing web site will languish in obscurity unless it is actively promoted.
In many ways, marketing your presence in the web is little different from regular marketing, it is a new means to an end.
Marketing your presence on the web means carefully identifying the market and geographic segment that you want to address. International potential for your business may encourage you to support multi-lingual versions of your pages. If your appeal to to a particular age/gender/interest group, then this will influence your choice of advertising platform.
There are many ways of promoting your site, both within the web and through normal advertising channels. Some are more cost effective than others, but regardless of channel, what is most important is that the effectiveness is regularly monitored. Currently, search engines are the prime means for potential customers to find you, but you may become lost in the thousands of other competing organisations. Ensuring the uniqueness of your organisation will help it to be easily identified by potential customers. As people become more sophisticated in their use of the web, we must be prepared to monitor changes in search habits, so that we can remain visible to potential business.