E-COMMERCE
-Simran Kaur
Semester IX
WHAT IS E-COMMERCE
Buying or selling of goods and services, transmission of
funds or data over an electronic medium, primarily the
internet is known as e-commerce.
It was first introduced in 1960’s via electronic data
interchange (EDI) on value added network.
In 1979, the American National Standards developed ASC-
X12 as a uniform standard for businesses to share data.
The medium grew in early 1990’s with increased availability
of internet access and the rise of E-bay and Amazon which
revolutionized the e-commerce sector.
E-commerce is conducted using a variety of applications,
such as email, online catalogs and shopping carts, EDI, File
Transfer Protocol, and web services.
MODES OF E-COMMERCE
B2B: Business to business model. It uses mainly e-
infrastructure and e-markets. Example: IBM, HP Dell.
B2C: Business to Customer: where the business directly sells
to consumers of such product/service. Example: Amazon,
Flipkart, [Link]
B2G: Business to Government: use of e-commerce between
public sector and businesses. Example: public procurement,
licensing procedures, etc.
C2C: Consumer to Consumer: business between private
individuals or consumers via auction or peer to peer systems.
Example: E-bay, classified advertisements on portal websites
etc.
SALIENT FEATURES
Online Contracts: E-contracts have 3 elements, Offer,
Acceptance and Consideration.
Privity of Contract: No one other than the parties to the
contract can approach a court of law for enforcing a contract.
Jurisdictional Issues: There are no geographic demarcations
on the internet, making the matter of Jurisdiction and important
issue.
Electronic Data Interchange: It communicates information
pertinent to business transactions between computer systems of
companies.
ADVANTAGES OF E-COMMERCE
Ability to reach new markets.
Reduction in cost for some businesses.
Increased purchasing opportunities for consumers.
Increased efficiency.
DISADVANTAGES OF E-COMMERCE
Incompatible with certain industries.
Limited accessibility due to lack of e-infrastructure.
Requires extremely specialized set of skills.
Jurisdictional issues due to lack of geographic
boundaries.
E-CONTRACTS
Like a regular contract, e-contracts also have 3 essentials; offer,
acceptance and consideration.
OFFER: Contract is formed after a party accepts the offer
made by the other party. An offeror is free to revoke such
offer before it is accepted. In such cases, he will not be
bound to perform such contract.
Acceptance: A contract is completed when acceptance to the
offer is communicated. As per the mail-box rule, an
acceptance mailed is effective when it is deposited in the
mail. In case of online transaction, products appearing for
sale online is not an offer but an invitation to offer, while
sharing payment details is deemed to be an offer. Acceptance
would be the given when credit card company authorizes
such transaction.
Consideration: Consideration is what one party receives
from the other for performance of contractual obligations. It
must be legal and valid.
FORMATION OF E-CONTRACTS
E-contracts can be formed in following ways:
Exchange of e-mail
E-commerce websites
Online conduct, eg: clicking on ‘I accept the terms’
button
Electronic data interchange (EDI)
Electronic agents
TYPES OF E-CONTRACTS
Chats and Video conferencing contracts
E-mail contracts
Web contracts
Shrink Wrap License contracts
E-GOVERNANCE
Application of information and communication technology
for delivering government services, exchange of information,
communication transactions, integration of various stand-
alone systems and services by the government is known as e-
governance.
Today, electricity, water, phone and all kinds of bills can be
paid over the internet.
The four pillars of e-governance are connectivity,
knowledge, data content and capital.
E-GOVERNANCE MODELS
G2C: Government to citizen: government services shared by
citizens, example: payment of electricity bills online, online
registration of applications, etc.
G2G: Government to government: services shared between
governments, example: information that needs to be shared
between various government agencies, department and
organizations.
G2B: Government to business: services shared between public
sector and businesses, example: rejection/ acceptance of patents,
registration of company, etc.
G2E: Government to employee: to improve transparency
between government and its employees.
CHALLENGES IN E-GOVERNANCE
Lack of integrated services.
Different languages in every state
Not accessible to a large portion of the population
Security concerns with uploading databases online.
High maintenance costs
Need for specialized skills to construct such websites.
ARTICLES REFERRED
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