E-commerce is a new phenomenon in the financial markets. The rapid advances in the information and communications technology sector have facilitated the advent of e-commerce and has resulted in global market euphoria over technology stocks in financial markets. This thesis is based on the premise that an initial characterisation of the e-commerce sector is necessary as a precursor to a more profound understanding of the market mechanism and asset pricing process. The development of e-commerce as a consumer market is reviewed in this thesis. The issues and factors contributing to this development are identified, analysed and the implications for equity valuation of e-commerce related stocks are discussed and explained. Various economic variables that influenced Australian e-commerce stock returns from July 1999 to June 2000 are examined. A critical review of existing theories of stock valuation and their empirical relevance to e-commerce is presented