Content Management Systems are computer software systems for organizing and facilitating collaborative creations of documents and other content. They also are being use by many companies for storage and single sourcing of documentation. Early content management systems were developed internally at organizations which were doing a lot of content publishing, but original they were used for website publishing and management.

A trend for businesses in the 21st century is to offer their products and services electronically, a practice known as electronic commerce, commonly referred to as "e-commerce". Major companies, such as Amazon, Apple, Walmart, Sears, and other major retailers all offer their products online. Their mindset is that this offers quick, easy, and efficient service. There are advantages to engaging in e-commerce. First, providing fast and efficient service leads to a competitive advantage, and presents the opportunity to reach out to a larger target market. With the expansion of the Internet and a greater thirst for information and knowledge, global competition is becoming fierce, so gaining a competitive advantage is vital to the global and domestic strategy of a firm.

Traditionally, the term refers to the distribution of printed works such as Books and Newspapers, but with the advent of digital information systems and the Internet, the scope of publishing has expanded to include electronic resources, such as the electronic versions of books and periodicals, as well as websites, blogs, etc.