This paper empirically examined the relationships between the characteristics of purchasing items and the effective e-procurement strategies. We found that the importance of items has influence on the effective e-procurement, while the complexity of purchasing process has little influence. This fact exhibits the automation of transactional process has little influence on carrying out e-procurement. We also found, companies prefer the horizontal e-marketplace to the vertical e-marketplace. In addition, companies want to purchase through the e-bidding or reverse auction for lower prices.