Networking E-commerce E-commerce A general term used to describe the buying and selling of products or services over the Internet. This covers a wide range of activities including marketing, sales, advertising & government. E-sales Using electronic funds transfer with credit/debit cards to purchase goods from online shops at any time of the day in any country. E-sales - Software Software can be distributed via the Internet. Software can be locked or set to expire after a period of time. Payment of a fee results in the code to unlock the software being sent. Once enough bandwidth is available, software could be rented. E-marketing Many large companies dont actually sell their products online but instead use their web sites to advertise their products and give customers as much information about their products. Many estate agents use the Internet to give people a virtual tour of the houses they have for sale. E-Government Local and central government both use the Internet to communicate with the pupils. Local government publicise opening hours of pool & libraries and refuse collection times etc. Customer Advantages Goods & services can be purchased any time day or night. They can be purchased from anywhere. Products can quickly be researched and compared in terms of price & specification without leaving home. Goods arrive by post, reducing the need to travel. Customer Disadvantages If goods from another country dont arrive you may have difficulty getting a refund. You are relying on companies to keep your credit card details secure. You pay more for delivery & packaging. Local business may suffer. You may have to pay import tax. Merchant - Advantages Direct transaction with customer no retailers to reduce profit. Customer base is worldwide.. Your on-line profile does not actually depend on the size of your business. You can automate the packing & delivery of your product. Merchant - Disadvantages You need good security in place to avoid credit card fraud. You need to employ people to keep your website and catalogue up to date. Your web site needs to be secure and your servers protected from hacker attack. Fraud Concerns about credit card fraud are widespread. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a protocol that ensures: Authentication client and seller are who they say they are. Confidentiality The message has not been read in transit. Integrity the message has not been altered. A lock icon appears in your browser. It uses encryption and digital certificates. Fraud On other sites you may see SHTTP or HTTPS. This is the HTTP protocol used over a secure socket layer. It encrypts web pages. Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) All the methods used for secure transaction (SSL, SHHT & SET) use encryption.