Concept of E-Commerce (cyber law notes chapter-9)

CONCEPT OF E-COMMERCE:

E-Commerce refers to any form of business transaction conducted online. The most popular example of E-Commerce is online shopping, which is defined as buying and selling of goods via the internet on any device. However, E-Commerce can also entail other types of activities, such as online auctions. payment gateways, online ticketing, and internet banking.

E-Commerce is the fastest-growing retail market projected to hit S4.135 trillion in sales in 2020.

Mobile commerce, or M-Commerce, is a rapidly growing new avenue of E-Commerce that's mostly driven by the expanding market and influence of smartphones and millennials' comfort with shopping online. In 2018, the M-Commerce sector enjoyed a 39.19% increase in sales compared to the previous year.

What are the Different E-Commerce Business Models?

E-Commerce is typically classified into three different models based on the type of participants involved in the transaction. Broadly speaking these business models are:

Business to Business (B2B)

B2B is when businesses sell to other businesses. This is typical of stationery stores wh0 sell office equipment in bulk to businesses. Normally B2B companies provide a discounted rate per unit if customers buy in bulk which it is great motivation for offices to avail of.

Business to consumer (B2C)

B2C is the most commonly thought of business model where merchants sell to consumers who buy a small amount of produce. A familiar example of the B2C model would be supermarkets where consumers buy their shopping weekly but they wouldn't normally bulk buy anything.

Consumer to consumer (C2C)

C2C is a relatively new business model where consumers who previously bought something seek to resell this item to another consumer. Through marketplaces like eBay and Craigslist, this can be easy and quite lucrative for selling items that you no longer have a use for.

E-COMMERCE IN BANGLADESH:

E-commerce involves buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers through an electronic medium. Broadly, e-commerce is classified into four categories: business to business or B2B (Cisco), business to consumer or B2C (Amazon), consumer to consumer or C2C (eBay) and Business-to-Government (B2G). (Business-to-business e-commerce involves agreements between businesses and businesses. Distribution management, inventory management, channel management, supplier management and payment management are some of the areas in which B2B applications are widely used. In Bangladesh, bgmea.com.bd, and bizbangladesh.com are examples of B2B platforms.) (B2C commerce involves e-commerce between businesses and the consumers. This form of e-commerce involves the purchase of books or any form of consumer goods. It also includes the purchase of software, e-books, games, songs as well as e-banking. ajkerdeal.com, bdbazar.com, daraz. com, bajna.com are some examples of B2C) Advantages of B2C platforms to companies are reduced operating costs, bigger outreach, globalization, customer convenience and knowledge management. Consumer-to-consumer E-commerce involves transactions between individual consumers. For instance, online auctions, peer-to-peer systems for money or file exchanges can be classified as forms of C2C e-commerce. In Bangladesh bikroy.com, and clickbd.com are examples of C2C platforms) B2G is usually used for licensing process; public purchasing and other government operations. B2G e-commerce is rather insignificant when compared to the other three forms. However, B2G can be one of the driving forces for running the public sector known as e-governance.

A wide range of technologies is used in e-commerce that including electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic mail (e-mail), and electronic funds transfer (EFT). In case of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), there needs to be an agreement between trading partners. EDI is a standard method for exchanging business data. E-mail and fax are also forms of EDI. In Bangladesh small, medium and big enterprises have taken up e-business platforms. When compared to developed countries, developing countries have a higher potential for improving the business structure and raising productivity by using e-commerce as a medium. M-Commerce

(Mobile Commerce) and F-Commerce (Facebook Commerce) are very popular in today's e-business world. Over the years, the number of online transactions has been on the rise. According to BTRC officials, the number of internet subscribers in Bangladesh had crossed 80 million in 2017. At present, there are approximately 2,000 e-commerce sites and 50,000 Facebook-based outlets delivering almost 30,000 products a day Currently, 80 percent of the online sales are taking place in Dhaka, Chattogram and Gazipur.

THE PROMISING SIGNIFICANCE OF E-COMMERCE:

E-commerce or Electronic commerce is the buzzword of the modern day. In simple terms, it's just buying and selling of products and services through the internet. But in a broad sense, it includes the entire online process of developing, marketing, selling, delivering, servicing and paying for products and services. With the widespread usage of internet, the sphere of e-commerce has widened dramatically.

Today E-commerce is an integral part of the business because of various reasons like:

• ·        Ease of use
• ·        Accessibility all across the globe
• ·        Great variety & easy compassion of products from different vendors
• ·        Trusted payment channels
• ·        Shopping can be done sitting in the convenience of home shopping, hence it is less time-consuming.

It is therefore very important for any new entrepreneur to understand the significance of E-Commerce and should know how to utilize this tool for the growth and development of business.

So, whether you have an existing business or launching a brand new business, whether the volume of your business is large or small, you can always generate profit by demonstrating your products or services online, thereby acquiring a large amount of viewer exposure. In concise, buying and selling will result in profits and returns.

There are so many factors that make e-commerce to come to the forefront in today's world. Saving precious time involved in business transactions is really a prominent factor. Like for instance, net banking makes it easy to carry out money and baking transactions in a breakneck speed as compared to the real banking scenario. This asserts the fact that Ecommerce is beneficial to both businesses and consumers wise as payment and documentation can be completed with greater efficiency and reliability. Another important factor determining the flow of whole business iS connectivity. Connectivity is very important for both consumers and businesses. Ecommerce provides better connectivity for all the potential candidates all over the globe, thus helping in enhancing the business without any geographical barriers. From the viewpoint of the customer, Ecommerce is a good Platform for hassle-free shopping by sitting in your home. The customer can browse through all the products and services available and can review and compare the prices of similar products available in the online space.

DIMENSIONS OF E-COMMERCE:

1. ·        Market Models
2. ·        Communication Protocols
3. ·        Product Ontologies
4. ·        Marketplace Visualizations
5. ·        Personalization
6. ·        Trust & Reputation
7. ·        Privacy & Security
8. ·        Payments & Transaction Processing RA
9. ·        Intermediaries
10. ·        Legal Issues

DIMENSIONS OF E-COMMERCE SECURITY:

Six Dimensions of Ecommerce Security

1. Integrity

We all have the one common question, whether we have received the same data that the sender has sent: Now it is the duty of integrity for the correctness of the information that has been transmitted or received or displayed on a website over the internet.

Integrity can ensure that information on the internet has not been altered in any way by an unauthorized party. It maintains the consistency, accuracy, and trustworthiness of the information over its entire life cycle.

2. Non-repudiation

Good business depends on both buyers and sellers. They must not deny any facts or rules once they accept that there should not be any repudiation.

Non-repudiation confirms whether the information sent between the two parties was received or not. It ensures that the purchase cannot be denied by the person who completed the transaction. In other words, it's an assurance that anyone cannot deny the validity of a transaction.

Mostly non-repudiation uses a digital signature for online transactions because no one can deny the authenticity of their signature on a document.

3. Authenticity

In e-commerce, since both the customer and seller need to trust each other, they must remain as who they are in real. Both the seller and buyer must provide proof of their original identity so that the e-commerce transaction can happen securely between them.

Every e-commerce site uses authenticity as a tool to ensure the identity of the person over the internet. In e-commerce, fraudulent identity and authentication are also possible, which makes identity a difficult process. Some common ways to ensure a person's identity are for customer to log in using a password.

4. Confidentiality

Confidentiality refers to protecting information from being accessed by an unauthorized person on the internet. In other words, only the people who are authorized can gain access to view or modify or use the sensitive data of any customer or merchants.

According to Juniper Research, nearly 146 billion records will be exposed by criminal data breaches between 2018 and 2023.

One confidentiality breach will be sniffing. It's a program that steals all the important files of the company, individual identity or email messages or personal reports of the internet user.

5. Privacy

Where confidentiality is a concern about the information present during communication, privacy is concerned with personal details. In general, privacy is used to control the usage of information by the customers that they have given to the merchant.

According to Fortune, 1.16 billion email addresses and passwords are exposed in 2019 through security breaches.

Privacy is a major threat to any online transaction or internet user since personal information has been revealed and there is no way back to disclose them.

6. Availability

Continuous availability of the data is the key to providing a better customer experience in e-commerce. The continuous availability of the e-commerce website increases online visibility, search engine rankings, and site traffic. Data that is present on the website must be secured and available 24x7x 365 for the customer without downtime. If it is not, it will be difficult to gain a competitive edge and survive in the digital world.

INTERNET BANKING IN BANGLADESH:

The world of banking is changing fast in this constantly changing digitized environment where the demand of internet banking in the banking sector has become mandatory as the customer demands to get the facilities of banking at their fingertips. Paying bills, cell phone top-ups, transferring funds, or even buying advance movie tickets- we nowadays seek through our internet banking apps cause life has become hectic and busy. 2020 is predicted to feature an even stronger collision of two worlds, the financial services, and technology. Times many banks in our country have come up with their own internet banking app to provide all the accompaniments that one customer can obtain by using internet banking apps.

Last decade, internet banking is therefore viewed by the large banks of Bangladesh as a way to focus on the best service in terms of security and advanced tech adoption. Over the last five years, top Bangladeshi Banks have recognized the importance of service standards and customer experience. Hence many have come up with their own banking apps to set the expressions of their brand. A well-designed consumer banking app can create great relationships among banks and then loyal consumers.