E-COMMERCE

Electronic commerce, commonly known as (electronic marketing) e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with widespread Internet usage. A wide variety of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well. A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers have electronic commerce presence on the World Wide Web Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market). Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. This is the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies such as Amazon.com. Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of the business transactions. Business applications Some common applications related to electronic commerce are the following:

Email Enterprise content management Instant messaging Newsgroups

Online shopping and order tracking Online banking Online office suites Domestic and international payment systems Shopping cart software Teleconferencing Electronic tickets

Government regulations In the United States, some electronic commerce activities are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). These activities include the use of commercial e-mails, online advertising and consumer privacy. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 establishes national standards for direct marketing over e-mail. The Federal Trade Commission Act regulates all forms of advertising, including online advertising, and states that advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive.[5] Using its authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive practices, the FTC has brought a number of cases to enforce the promises in corporate privacy statements, including promises about the security of consumers personal information.[6] As result, any corporate privacy policy related to e-commerce activity may be subject to enforcement by the FTC. BUILDING AN E-COMMERCE SITE Creating Customized Shopping Cart :Shopping Cart is like a store front where you can display your products,catalogue,price etc. The customer comes to your store through website and selects the item which he requires,after selection gets completed he will be shown with the total amount to be paid for the items he has selected.He would be given an option for paying through Credit Card and complete the transaction. Creating Customized Shopping Cart :Shopping Cart is like a store front where you can display your products,catalogue,price etc. The customer comes to your store through website and selects the item which he requires,after selection gets completed he will be shown with the total amount to be paid for the items he has selected.He would be given an option for paying through Credit Card and complete the transaction.

Integrating Payment Gateway with your Website :This is very important part and the last stage of completing you e-presence.Our Team at Cyberweb Global Services Ltd will integrate the Payment Gateway software with your website to carry online transaction safely and securely. E-commerce advantages and disadvantages E-commerce provides many new ways for businesses and consumers to communicate and conduct business. There are a number of advantages and disadvantages of conducting business in this manner.

E-commerce advantages Some advantages that can be achieved from e-commerce include:

Being able to conduct business 24 x 7 x 365 . E-commerce systems can operate all day every day. Your physical storefront does not need to be open in order for customers and suppliers to be doing business with you electronically. Access the global marketplace . The Internet spans the world, and it is possible to do business with any business or person who is connected to the Internet. Simple local businesses such as specialist record stores are able to market and sell their offerings internationally using e-commerce. This global opportunity is assisted by the fact that, unlike traditional communications methods, users are not charged according to the distance over which they are communicating. Speed. Electronic communications allow messages to traverse the world almost instantaneously. There is no need to wait weeks for a catalogue to arrive by post: that communications delay is not a part of the Internet / ecommerce world. Marketspace. The market in which web-based businesses operate is the global market. It may not be evident to them, but many businesses are already facing international competition from web-enabled businesses. Opportunity to reduce costs. The Internet makes it very easy to 'shop around' for products and services that may be cheaper or more effective than we might otherwise settle for. It is sometimes possible to, through some

online research, identify original manufacturers for some goods - thereby bypassing wholesalers and achieving a cheaper price. Computer platform-independent . 'Many, if not most, computers have the ability to communicate via the Internet independent of operating systems and hardware. Customers are not limited by existing hardware systems' (Gascoyne & Ozcubukcu, 1997:87). Efficient applications development environment - 'In many respects, applications can be more efficiently developed and distributed because the can be built without regard to the customer's or the business partner's technology platform. Application updates do not have to be manually installed on computers. Rather, Internet-related technologies provide this capability inherently through automatic deployment of software updates' (Gascoyne & Ozcubukcu, 1997:87). Allowing customer self service and 'customer outsourcing'. People can interact with businesses at any hour of the day that it is convenient to them, and because these interactions are initiated by customers, the customers also provide a lot of the data for the transaction that may otherwise need to be entered by business staff. This means that some of the work and costs are effectively shifted to customers; this is referred to as 'customer outsourcing'. Stepping beyond borders to a global view. Using aspects of e-commerce technology can mean your business can source and use products and services provided by other businesses in other countries. This seems obvious enough to say, but people do not always consider the implications of e-commerce. For example, in many ways it can be easier and cheaper to host and operate some e-commerce activities outside Australia. Further, because many ecommerce transactions involve credit cards, many businesses in Australia need to make arrangements for accepting online payments. However a number of major Australian banks have tended to be unhelpful laggards on this front, charging a lot of money and making it difficult to establish these arrangements - particularly for smaller businesses and/or businesses that don't fit into a traditional-economy understanding of business. In some cases, therefore, it can be easier and cheaper to set up arrangements which bypass this aspect of the Australian banking system. Admittedly, this can create some grey areas for legal and taxation purposes, but these can be dealt with. And yes these circumstances do have implications for Australia's national competitiveness and the competitiveness of our industries and businesses.

As a further thought, many businesses find it easier to buy and sell in U.S. dollars: it is effectively the major currency of the Internet. In this context, global online

customers can find the concept of peculiar and unfamiliar currencies disconcerting. Some businesses find they can achieve higher prices online and in US dollars than they would achieve selling locally or nationally. Given that banks often charge fees for converting currencies, this is another reason to investigate all of your (national and international) options for accepting and making online payments. In brief, it is useful to take a global view with regard the potential and organisation of your e-commerce activities, especially if you are targeting global customers.

A new marketing channel. The Internet provides an important new channel to sell to consumers. Peterson et al. (1999) suggest that, as a marketing channel, the Internet has the following characteristics: the ability to inexpensively store vast amounts of information at different virtual locations the availability of powerful and inexpensive means of searching, organising, and disseminating such information interactivity and the ability to provide information on demand the ability to provide perceptual experiences that are far superior to a printed catalogue, although not as rich as personal inspection the capability to serve as a transaction medium the ability to serve as a physical distribution medium for certain goods (e.g., software) relatively low entry and establishment costs for sellers no other existing marketing channel possesses all of these characteristics.

Some of these advantages and their surrounding issues are discussed below in further detail. E-commerce disadvantages and constraints Some disadvantages and constraints of e-commerce include the following.

Time for delivery of physical products . It is possible to visit a local music store and walk out with a compact disc, or a bookstore and leave with a book. E-commerce is often used to buy goods that are not available locally from businesses all over the world, meaning that physical goods need to be delivered, which takes time and costs money. In some cases there are ways around this, for example, with electronic files of the music or books being accessed across the Internet, but then these are not physical goods. Physical product, supplier & delivery uncertainty . When you walk out of a shop with an item, it's yours. You have it; you know what it is, where it is

and how it looks. In some respects e-commerce purchases are made on trust. This is because, firstly, not having had physical access to the product, a purchase is made on an expectation of what that product is and its condition. Secondly, because supplying businesses can be conducted across the world, it can be uncertain whether or not they are legitimate businesses and are not just going to take your money. It's pretty hard to knock on their door to complain or seek legal recourse! Thirdly, even if the item is sent, it is easy to start wondering whether or not it will ever arrive. Perishable goods . Forget about ordering a single gelato ice cream from a shop in Rome! Though specialised or refrigerated transport can be used, goods bought and sold via the Internet tend to be durable and nonperishable: they need to survive the trip from the supplier to the purchasing business or consumer. This shifts the bias for perishable and/or non-durable goods back towards traditional supply chain arrangements, or towards relatively more local e-commerce-based purchases, sales and distribution. In contrast, durable goods can be traded from almost anyone to almost anyone else, sparking competition for lower prices. In some cases this leads to disintermediation in which intermediary people and businesses are bypassed by consumers and by other businesses that are seeking to purchase more directly from manufacturers. Limited and selected sensory information. The Internet is an effective conduit for visual and auditory information: seeing pictures, hearing sounds and reading text. However it does not allow full scope for our senses: we can see pictures of the flowers, but not smell their fragrance; we can see pictures of a hammer, but not feel its weight or balance. Further, when we pick up and inspect something, we choose what we look at and how we look at it. This is not the case on the Internet. If we were looking at buying a car on the Internet, we would see the pictures the seller had chosen for us to see but not the things we might look for if we were able to see it in person. And, taking into account our other senses, we can't test the car to hear the sound of the engine as it changes gears or sense the smell and feel of the leather seats. There are many ways in which the Internet does not convey the richness of experiences of the world. This lack of sensory information means that people are often much more comfortable buying via the Internet generic goods - things that they have seen or experienced before and about which there is little ambiguity, rather than unique or complex things. Returning goods. Returning goods online can be an area of difficulty. The uncertainties surrounding the initial payment and delivery of goods can be exacerbated in this process. Will the goods get back to their source? Who pays for the return postage? Will the refund be paid? Will I be left with

nothing? How long will it take? Contrast this with the offline experience of returning goods to a shop. Privacy, security, payment, identity, contract. Many issues arise - privacy of information, security of that information and payment details, whether or not payment details (eg credit card details) will be misused, identity theft, contract, and, whether we have one or not, what laws and legal jurisdiction apply. Defined services & the unexpected . E-commerce is an effective means for managing the transaction of known and established services, that is, things that are everyday. It is not suitable for dealing with the new or unexpected. For example, a transport company used to dealing with simple packages being asked if it can transport a hippopotamus, or a customer asking for a book order to be wrapped in blue and white polka dot paper with a bow. Such requests need human intervention to investigate and resolve. Personal service . Although some human interaction can be facilitated via the web, e-commerce can not provide the richness of interaction provided by personal service. For most businesses, e-commerce methods provide the equivalent of an information-rich counter attendant rather than a salesperson. This also means that feedback about how people react to product and service offerings also tends to be more granular or perhaps lost using e-commerce approaches. If your only feedback is that people are (or are not) buying your products or services online, this is inadequate for evaluating how to change or improve your e-commerce strategies and/or product and service offerings. Successful business use of e-commerce typically involves strategies for gaining and applying customer feedback. This helps businesses to understand, anticipate and meet changing online customer needs and preferences, which is critical because of the comparatively rapid rate of ongoing Internet-based change. Size and number of transactions. E-commerce is most often conducted using credit card facilities for payments, and as a result very small and very large transactions tend not to be conducted online. The size of transactions is also impacted by the economics of transporting physical goods. For example, any benefits or conveniences of buying a box of pens online from a US-based business tend to be eclipsed by the cost of having to pay for them to be delivered to you in Australia. The delivery costs also mean that buying individual items from a range of different overseas businesses is significantly more expensive than buying all of the goods from one overseas business because the goods can be packaged and shipped together.

WHAT IS CREDIT CARD ? A credit card is part of a system of payments named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. It is a card entitling its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services.[1] The issuer of the card grants a line of credit to the consumer (or the user) from which the user can borrow money for payment to a merchant or as a cash advance to the user. A credit card is different from a charge card, where a charge card requires the balance to be paid in full each month. In contrast, credit cards allow the consumers to 'revolve' their balance, at the cost of having interest charged. Most credit cards are issued by local banks or credit unions, and are the shape and size specified by the ISO/IEC 7810 standard as ID-1. This article may be too long to comfortably read and navigate. Pleaseconsider splitting content into sub-articles and using this article for a summary of the key points of the subject.

Credit card

An example of the front in a typical credit card: 1. Issuing bank logo 2. EMV chip 3. Hologram 4. Credit card number 5. Card brand logo 6. Expiry Date 7. Cardholder's name

An example of the reverse side of a typical credit card:

1. 2.

Magnetic Stripe Signature Strip

Card Security Code Credit cards are issued after an account has been approved by the credit provider, after which cardholders can use it to make purchases at merchants accepting that card. When a purchase is made, the credit card user agrees to pay the card issuer. The cardholder indicates his/her consent to pay by signing a receipt with a record of the card details and indicating the amount to be paid or by entering a personal identification number (PIN). Also, many merchants now accept verbal authorizations via telephone and electronic authorization using the Internet, known as a 'Card/Cardholder Not Present' (CNP) transaction. Electronic verification systems allow merchants to verify that the card is valid and the credit card customer has sufficient credit to cover the purchase in a few seconds, allowing the verification to happen at time of purchase. The verification is performed using a credit card payment terminal or Point of Sale (POS) system with a communications link to the merchant's acquiring bank. Data from the card is

obtained from a magnetic stripe or chip on the card; the latter system is in the United Kingdom and Ireland commonly known as Chip and PIN, but is more technically an EMV card. Each month, the credit card user is sent a statement indicating the purchases undertaken with the card, any outstanding fees, and the total amount owed. Credit card issuers usually waive interest charges if the balance is paid in full each month, but typically will charge full interest on the entire outstanding balance from the date of each purchase if the total balance is not paid. Benefits to customers Because of intense competition in the credit card industry, credit card providers often offer incentives such as frequent flyer points, gift certificates, or cash back (typically up to 1 percent based on total purchases) to try to attract customers to their programs. However it should be noted that the incentive is insignificant to the interest charged for carrying a balance. Low interest credit cards or even 0% interest credit cards are available. However, services are available which alert credit card holders when their low interest period is due to expire. Most such services charge a monthly or annual fee. Detriments to customers Credit cards with low introductory rates are limited to a fixed term, usually between 6 and 12 months after which a higher rate is charged. As all credit cards assess fees and interest, some customers become so encumbered with their credit debt service that they are driven to bankruptcy. Credit cards will often stipulate a default rate of 20 to 30 percent in the event a payment is missed. That is, if a consumer misses a payment, the rate will automatically increase to a very burdensome level. This can lead to a snowball affect in which the consumer is drowned by unexpectedly high interest rates. Further most card holder agreements enable the issuer to arbitrarily raise the interest rate for any reason they see fit. Transaction steps

Authorization: The cardholder pays for the purchase and the merchant submits the transaction to the acquirer (acquiring bank). The acquirer verifies the credit card number, the transaction type and the amount with the issuer (Card-issuing bank) and reserves that amount of the cardholder's

credit limit for the merchant. An authorization will generate an approval code, which the merchant stores with the transaction.

Batching: Authorized transactions are stored in "batches", which are sent to the acquirer. Batches are typically submitted once per day at the end of the business day. If a transaction is not submitted in the batch, the authorization will stay valid for a period determined by the issuer, after which the held amount will be returned back to the cardholder's available credit (see authorization hold). Some transactions may be submitted in the batch without prior authorizations; these are either transactions falling under the merchant's floor limit or ones where the authorization was unsuccessful but the merchant still attempts to force the transaction through. (Such may be the case when the cardholder is not present but owes the merchant additional money, such as extending a hotel stay or car rental.) Clearing and Settlement: The acquirer sends the batch transactions through the credit card association, which debits the issuers for payment and credits the acquirer. Essentially, the issuer pays the acquirer for the transaction. Funding: Once the acquirer has been paid, the acquirer pays the merchant. The merchant receives the amount totaling the funds in the batch minus the "discount rate," which is the fee the merchant pays the acquirer for processing the transactions. Chargebacks: A chargeback is an event in which money in a merchant account is held due to a dispute relating to the transaction. Chargebacks are typically initiated by the cardholder. In the event of a chargeback, the issuer returns the transaction to the acquirer for resolution. The acquirer then forwards the chargeback to the merchant, who must either accept the chargeback or contest it.

WHAT IS DEBIT CARD ? A debit card (also known as a bank card or check card) is a plastic card which provides an alternative payment method to cash when making purchases. Functionally, it can be called an electronic check, as the funds are withdrawn directly from either the bank account (often referred to as a check card), or from

the remaining balance on the card. In some cases, the cards are designed exclusively for use on the Internet, and so there is no physical card. The use of debit cards has become widespread in many countries and has overtaken the cheque, and in some instances cash transactions by volume. Like credit cards, debit cards are used widely for telephone and Internet purchases. Debit cards can also allow for instant withdrawal of cash, acting as the ATM card for withdrawing cash and as a cheque guarantee card. Merchants can also offer "cashback"/"cashout" facilities to customers, where a customer can withdraw cash along with their purchase.

WHAT IS MASTER CARD ? MasterCard Worldwide is a multinational corporation based in New York, United States. Throughout the world, its principal business is to process payments between the banks of merchants and the banks of purchasers that use its "MasterCard" brand debit and credit cards to make purchases. MasterCard Worldwide has been a publicly traded company since 2006. Prior to its initial public offering, MasterCard Worldwide was a membership organization owned by the 25,000+ financial institutions that issue its card. It was originally created in 1966 by United California Bank (later First Interstate Bank and subsequently merged into Wells Fargo Bank), Wells Fargo, Crocker National Bank (also subsequently merged into Wells Fargo), and the Bank of California (subsequently merged into the Union Bank of California) as a competitor to the BankAmericard issued by Bank of America, which is now the VISA credit card and issued by Visa Inc. In 1966 a number of banks formed the Interbank Card Association. The name Master Charge was licensed by the above mentioned California banks from the First National Bank of Louisville, Kentucky in 1967. With the help of New York's Marine Midland Bank, now HSBC Bank USA, these banks joined with the Interbank Card Association (ICA) to create "Master Charge: The Interbank Card". The card was given a significant boost in 1969, when National City Bank joined, merging its proprietary Everything Card with Master Charge.

In 1979, "Master Charge: The Interbank Card" was renamed simply "MasterCard". In the early 1990s MasterCard bought the British Access card and the Access name was dropped. In 2002, MasterCard International merged with Europay International SA, another large credit-card issuer association, which for many years issued cards under the name Eurocard. In 2006, MasterCard International underwent another name change to MasterCard Worldwide. This was done in order to suggest a more global scale of operations. In addition, the company introduced a new corporate logo adding a third circle to the two that had been used in the past (the familiar card logo, resembling a Venn diagram, remains unchanged). A new corporate tagline was introduced at the same time: "The Heart of Commerce".[1]

WHAT IS VISA CARD ? Visa Inc. (NYSE: V), commonly referred to as VISA (Visa International Service Association), is a multinational corporation based in San Francisco, California, USA. The company operates the world's largest retail electronic payment network, managing payments among financial institutions, merchants, consumers, businesses and government entities. Before Visa Inc's IPO in early 2008, it was operated as a cooperative of some 21,000 financial institutions that issued and marketed Visa products including credit and debit cards. In 2006, according to The Nielson Report, Visa held 44% of the credit card market share and 48% of the debit card market share in the United States.[2] The term Visa was conceived by the company's founder, Dee Hock. He believed that the word was instantly recognizable in many languages in many countries, and that it also denoted universal acceptance. Nowadays, the term VISA has become a recursive backronym for Visa International Service Association. In October 2007, Bank of America announced it was resurrecting the BankAmericard brand name as the "BankAmericard Rewards Visa."[5] Visa offers through its issuing members the following types of cards:

Debit cards (pay from a checking / savings account) Credit cards (pay monthly payments with interest) Prepaid cards (pay from a cash account that has no checkwriting privileges)

Visa operates the PLUS automated teller machine network and the Interlink EFTPOS point-of-sale network, which facilitate the "debit" protocol used with debit cards and prepaid cards. Visa offers through its issuing members the following types of cards:

Debit cards (pay from a checking / savings account) Credit cards (pay monthly payments with interest) Prepaid cards (pay from a cash account that has no checkwriting privileges)

Visa operates the PLUS automated teller machine network and the Interlink EFTPOS point-of-sale network, which facilitate the "debit" protocol used with debit cards and prepaid cards. New services, security Recent complications include the addition of exceptions for non-signed purchases by telephone or on the Internet, and an additional security system called "Verified by Visa" for purchases on the Internet. In September 2007, Visa introduced Visa payWave, a contact-less technology feature that allows cardholders to wave their card in front of contact-less payment terminals without the need to physically swipe or insert the card into a point-ofsale device.[18] In Europe, Visa has introduced the V PAY solution for chip-only, PIN-only cards. WHAT IS DIGITAL SIGNATURE ? A digital signature scheme typically consists of three algorithms:

A key generation algorithm that selects a private key uniformly at random from a set of possible private keys. The algorithm outputs the private key and a corresponding public key. A signing algorithm which, given a message and a private key, produces a signature. A signature verifying algorithm which given a message, public key and a signature, either accepts or rejects.

Two main properties are required. First, a signature generated from a fixed message and fixed private key should verify on that message and the

corresponding public key. Secondly, it should be computationally infeasible to generate a valid signature for a party who does not possess the private key. Benefits of digital signatures Below are some common reasons for applying a digital signature to communications: Authentication Although messages may often include information about the entity sending a message, that information may not be accurate. Digital signatures can be used to authenticate the source of messages. When ownership of a digital signature secret key is bound to a specific user, a valid signature shows that the message was sent by that user. The importance of high confidence in sender authenticity is especially obvious in a financial context. For example, suppose a bank's branch office sends instructions to the central office requesting a change in the balance of an account. If the central office is not convinced that such a message is truly sent from an authorized source, acting on such a request could be a grave mistake. Integrity In many scenarios, the sender and receiver of a message may have a need for confidence that the message has not been altered during transmission. Although encryption hides the contents of a message, it may be possible to change an encrypted message without understanding it. (Some encryption algorithms, known as nonmalleable ones, prevent this, but others do not.) However, if a message is digitally signed, any change in the message will invalidate the signature. Furthermore, there is no efficient way to modify a message and its signature to produce a new message with a valid signature, because this is still considered to be computationally infeasible by most cryptographic hash functions (see collision resistance). Drawbacks of digital signatures Despite their usefulness, digital signatures alone do not solve the following problems: Association of digital signatures and trusted time stamping

Digital signature algorithms and protocols do not inherently provide certainty about the date and time at which the underlying document was signed. The signer might have included a time stamp with the signature, or the document itself might have a date mentioned on it. Regardless of the document's contents, a reader cannot be certain the signer did not, for example, backdate the date or time of the signature. Such misuse can be made impracticable by using trusted time stamping in addition to digital signatures. WHAT IS E-PROCUREMENT ? E-procurement (electronic procurement, sometimes also known as supplier exchange) is the business-to-business or business-to-consumer or Business-togovernment purchase and sale of supplies, Work and services through the Internet as well as other information and networking systems, such as Electronic Data Interchange and Enterprise Resource Planning. Typically, e-procurement Web sites allow qualified and registered users to look for buyers or sellers of goods and services. Depending on the approach, buyers or sellers may specify costs or invite bids. Transactions can be initiated and completed. Ongoing purchases may qualify customers for volume discounts or special offers. E-procurement software may make it possible to automate some buying and selling. Companies participating expect to be able to control parts inventories more effectively, reduce purchasing agent overhead, and improve manufacturing cycles. E-procurement is expected to be integrated with the trend toward computerized supply chain management. E-procurement is done with a software application that includes features for supplier management and complex auctions. The new generation of E-Procurement is now on-demand or a software-as-a-service. There are seven main types of e-procurement:

Web-based ERP (Electronic Resource Planning): Creating and approving purchasing requisitions, placing purchase orders and receiving goods and services by using a software system based on Internet technology. e-MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul): The same as web-based ERP except that the goods and services ordered are non-product related MRO supplies. e-sourcing: Identifying new suppliers for a specific category of purchasing requirements using Internet technology. e-tendering: Sending requests for information and prices to suppliers and receiving the responses of suppliers using Internet technology.

e-reverse auctioning: Using Internet technology to buy goods and services from a number of known or unknown suppliers. e-informing: Gathering and distributing purchasing information both from and to internal and external parties using Internet technology. e-marketsites: Expands on Web-based ERP to open up value chains. Buying communities can access preferred suppliers' products and services, add to shopping carts, create requisition, seek approval, receipt purchase orders and process electronic invoices with integration to suppliers' supply chains and buyers' financial systems.

The e-procurement value chain consists of Indent Management, eTendering, eAuctioning, Vendor Management, Catalogue Management, and Contract Management. Indent Management is the workflow involved in the preparation of tenders. This part of the value chain is optional, with individual procuring departments defining their indenting process. In works procurement, administrative approval and technical sanction are obtained in electronic format. In goods procurement, indent generation activity is done online. The end result of the stage is taken as inputs for issuing the NIT. Elements of e-procurement include Request For Information, Request For Proposal, Request for Quotation, RFx (the previous three together), and eRFx (software for managing RFx projects). Advantages In reality e-procurement has the advantage of taking supply chain management to the next level, providing real time information to the vendor as to the status of a customer's needs. For example, a vendor may have an agreement with a customer to automatically ship materials when the customer's stock level reaches a low point, thus bypassing the need for the customer to ask for it. Phases The term of the Electronic Public Procurement can be defined as the usage of eGovernment platform over the electronic resources (Internet and Web-based applications) to conduct transactions for purchasing the products and services from suppliers to authority's buyers. The following sub-phases of the electronic public procurement process could be identified:

eSourcing: preparatory activities conducted by the contracting authority/entity to collect and reuse information for the preparation of a call; potential bidders may be contacted, if admitted by the legal rules, by electronic means to provide quotations or manifest interest. eNoticing: advertisement of calls for tenders through the publication of appropriate contract notices in electronic format in the relevant Official Journal (national/EU); electronic access to tender documents and specifications as well as additional related documents are provided in a nondiscriminatory way. eAccess: electronic access to tender documents and specifications as well support to economic operators for the preparation of an offer, e.g. clarifications, questions and answers. eSubmission: submission of offers in electronic format to the contracting authority/entity, which is able to receive, accept and process it in compliance with the legal requirements. eTendering: is the union of the eAccess and eSubmission phases. eAwarding: opening and evaluation of the electronic tenders received, and award of the contract to the best offer in terms of the lowest price or economically most advantageous bid. eContract: conclusion, enactment and monitoring of a contract / agreement through electronic means between the contracting authority/entity and the winning tenderer. eOrders: preparation and issuing of an electronic order by the contracting authority/entity and its acceptance by the contractor. eInvoicing: preparation and delivery of an invoice in electronic format. ePayment: electronic payment of the ordered goods, services or works.

WHAT IS PAY PAL ? PayPal is an e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. PayPal serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as checks and money orders. A PayPal account can be funded with an electronic debit from a bank account or by a credit card. The recipient of a PayPal transfer can either request a check from PayPal, establish their own PayPal deposit account or request a transfer to their bank account. PayPal is an example of a payment intermediary service that facilitates worldwide e-commerce.

PayPal performs payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee. The current incarnation of PayPal is the result of a March 2000 merger between Confinity and X.com.[4] Confinity was founded in December 1998 by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek, initially as a Palm Pilot payments and cryptography company.[5] X.com was founded by Elon Musk in March 1999, initially as an Internet financial services company. Both Confinity and X.com launched their websites in late 1999. Both companies were located on University Avenue in Palo Alto. Business today Currently, PayPal operates in 190 markets, and it manages over 175 million accounts (70 million active accounts). PayPal allows customers to send, receive, and hold funds in 19 currencies worldwide[12]. These currencies are the Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, Chinese renminbi yuan (only available for some Chinese accounts, see below), euro, pound sterling, Japanese yen, Czech koruna, Danish krone, Hong Kong dollar, Hungarian forint, Israeli new sheqel, Mexican peso, New Zealand dollar, Norwegian krone, Polish zloty, Singapore dollar, Swedish krona, Swiss franc and U.S. dollar. PayPal operates locally in 13 countries. Residents in 190 markets can use PayPal in their local markets to send money online. These new markets include Peru, Indonesia, the Philippines, Croatia, Fiji, Vietnam and Jordan. A complete list can be viewed at PayPal's website. Fraud Money transfers via PayPal create an inherent risk of fraud due to the impersonal nature of internet commerce and the gap in regulatory treatment of PayPal transactions. The existing fraud protection regulations, EFTA/E and TILA/Z, do not apply to P2P account holders as they do debit/credit card transactions outside of a P2P payment service. If an unauthorized third party obtains and uses someones PayPal login information and completes a transaction using the accountholders debit or credit card, EFTA/E and TILA/Z make PayPal responsible for the breach. There are, of course, fact specific exceptions to this rule. One is if funds are illicitly withdrawn from a PayPal deposit account. In that situation, neither PayPal nor the bank is required to

return the funds, because the agreement between a consumer and PayPal makes those types of transactions authorized. [34] PayPal account holders private information is marginally protected under one federal law. Since PayPal is a financial institution under the Gramm-LeachBliley Act (GLB), it cannot disclose its account holders nonpublic personal information to third parties unless account holders opt in to those disclosures. [35] If an account is subject to fraud or unauthorized use, PayPal puts the "Limited Access" designation on the account. At this point, the account holder must:

Log in Reset their password Develop a set of security questions (based in the hypothetical and not fact i.e. What is your favorite ice cream? not What is your mother's maiden name?) Verify location by landline phone or by mail