E-commerce is a business activity that uses information network technology as a means and centers on commodity exchange; it can also be understood as electronic transaction activities and related services on the Internet, corporate intranets and value-added networks. Activities are the electronic, networked and informatized aspects of traditional commercial activities; commercial activities using the Internet as the medium belong to the category of e-commerce.
E-commerce can provide full-process services such as online transactions and management. Therefore, it has various functions such as advertising, consultation and negotiation, online ordering, online payment, electronic accounts, service delivery, opinion consultation, and transaction management.
1. Advertising
E-commerce can publish various commercial information on the Internet by relying on the enterprise's Web server and customers' browsing. Customers can use online search tools to quickly find the product information they need, and merchants can use online homepages and emails to advertise globally. Compared with previous types of advertising, online advertising is the cheapest and provides the richest amount of information to customers.
2. Consultation and negotiation
E-commerce can use non-real-time emails, news groups and real-time discussion groups to understand market and product information and negotiate transactions. If there is any further If required, you can also use the online whiteboard conference (Whiteboard Conference) to exchange real-time graphic information. Online consultation and negotiation can transcend the limitations of face-to-face negotiation and provide a variety of convenient forms of long-distance conversation.
3. Online ordering
E-commerce can realize online ordering through the interactive transmission of emails on the Web. Online ordering usually provides very friendly ordering prompt information and ordering interactive format boxes on the product introduction page. After the customer completes the order form, the system will usually reply with a confirmation information form to ensure that the order information has been received. Ordering information can also be encrypted so that customer and merchant business information will not be leaked.
4. Online payment
E-commerce must become a complete process. Online payment is an important link. Credit card accounts can be used to make payments between customers and merchants. Using electronic payment methods directly online will eliminate many personnel expenses in transactions. Online payments will require more reliable information transmission security controls to prevent illegal activities such as fraud, eavesdropping, and fraudulent use.
5. Electronic account
Online payment must be supported by electronic finance, that is, financial institutions such as banks or credit card companies and insurance companies must provide online operations for financial services. And electronic account management is an essential part of it.
A credit card number or bank account number is an indicator of an electronic account. Its credibility needs to be guaranteed by necessary technical measures, such as digital certificates, digital signatures, encryption, etc. The application of these means provides the security of electronic account operations.
6. Service delivery
For customers who have paid, the goods they ordered should be delivered to them as soon as possible. Some goods are local and some goods are in other places. E-mail will be able to carry out logistics deployment in the network. The most suitable goods for direct delivery online are information products. Such as software, electronic books, information services, etc. It can send goods directly from the electronic warehouse to the user terminal.
7. Opinion solicitation
E-commerce can easily use "select", "fill in the blank" and other format files on the web page to collect users' feedback on sales services. This enables the company's market operations to form a closed loop. Customer feedback can not only improve the level of after-sales service, but also enable companies to obtain business opportunities to improve products and discover markets.
8. Transaction management
The management of the entire transaction will involve multiple aspects of human, financial, and material, as well as the coordination and management of enterprises and enterprises, enterprises and customers, and internal enterprises. . Therefore, transaction management involves the management of the entire process of business activities. The development of e-commerce will provide a good network environment for transaction management and a variety of application service systems. In this way, e-commerce can be more widely used.
Extended information:
The regulatory legislative process in the e-commerce field has accelerated again. The "E-Commerce Law (Draft)" was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for review for the second time. The second draft further strengthened the supervision responsibilities of e-commerce platforms on counterfeit and shoddy products, and intended to clarify that e-commerce operators are not allowed to use false propaganda or fictitious transactions. , fabricating user reviews and other methods that violate consumers’ right to know.
This means that in the future, e-commerce operators may be prohibited from “falsifying orders” and “falsifying credibility”.
In the opinion of the industry, the further refined draft will effectively promote the order management of cyberspace, and the inclusion of rules such as the prohibition of fraudulent orders will also make future standardized management of e-commerce legal and legal.
1. The platform shall bear joint and several liability
Specifically, the draft intends to stipulate that if an e-commerce platform operator knows or should know that an operator on the platform has infringed upon intellectual property rights, it shall take steps to delete, Blocking, disconnecting, terminating transactions and services and other necessary measures; if necessary measures are not taken, joint and several liability will be borne with the infringer.
The original draft stipulates that if an e-commerce platform "knowingly" infringes on intellectual property rights by an operator on the platform, it should take necessary measures such as deletion in accordance with the law. It is not difficult to see that the second review draft further strengthens the control of intellectual property rights. Protect.
The change of expression from "knowingly" to "knowing or should have known" puts forward clearer and stricter requirements for e-commerce platform operators to manage counterfeit goods. The responsibility reflects the further protection of intellectual property rights by legislation.
In order to further strengthen the obligations of e-commerce operators, especially platform operators, and strengthen the protection of consumer rights and interests, the second draft of the draft intends to stipulate that e-commerce operators should comply with their commitments or agreements with consumers. Deliver goods or services to consumers in the manner and time limit, and bear the risks and responsibilities in the transportation of goods;
E-commerce platform operators shall legally bear the responsibility of sellers of goods for goods transactions or service transactions marked as self-operated business or service provider’s liability.
In response to undesirable practices such as "order fraud" and "credit fraud", the draft intends to stipulate that e-commerce operators shall not infringe on consumers' right to know through false propaganda, fictitious transactions, fabricated user reviews, etc.
2. Filling regulatory loopholes
After the second review of the draft strictly prohibits e-commerce operators from cheating on their orders and reputation, it can be expected that this will significantly reduce the current industry There is hidden chaos in order fraud.
A single trader can get a reward of about 100 yuan by placing less than 20 orders a day. If other traders can be recruited to join the group, the income can be even higher. Even under the fierce competition among platform merchants, the theory of "if you don't swipe orders and wait to die" has been spread in the industry.
The gray and black industry of order fraud is like a cancer in the industry. Although the platform has been under high pressure to crack down on order fraud, the hidden order fraud industry chain has no choice but to use the platform without law enforcement rights and is still attached to the e-commerce platform.
The content in the second review draft that clarifies the joint and several responsibilities of e-commerce platforms further puts forward higher requirements for e-commerce platforms to combat counterfeit goods. In fact, strengthening the protection of intellectual property on e-commerce platforms, that is, in a popular sense, adhering to genuine brands and cracking down on counterfeit goods, has always been a common topic in the development of the e-commerce industry.
JD Global Shopping has been involved in a controversy due to the sale of fake "Tiger" thermos cups by third-party merchants on the platform. Although JD.com later provided evidence that the authorized cooperation between the group and the genuine Tiger brand was earlier than 2014 It has already begun in 2017, but the counterfeit sales behavior of third-party merchants still cannot completely dispel the concerns of all sectors of society.
3. There is still room for policy refinement
The e-commerce law, which is still in the review stage, is still some time away from its official promulgation, and all walks of life have high hopes for further refinement of the bill. High expectations. Further refinement of the draft e-commerce law will obviously further promote the order management of my country’s cyberspace.
In addition to adding the prohibition of order fraud to the draft, we also need to consider how to refine the penalty measures for order fraud in the future. However, considering the characteristics of the Internet industry, the refinement of the content of the draft and even its implementation will be difficult. Implementation still needs to go through an ongoing process.
As for the control of counterfeit goods, if the qualification for joint and several liability of e-commerce platforms in the original draft is that the platform has subjective indulgence, the statement in the second review of the draft means that the e-commerce platform It is necessary to further strengthen the review in the merchant approval and settlement process, and even follow up on the clues of counterfeit sales mentioned by some consumers in their comments.
In the future, e-commerce laws should add content related to media shopping. There are a large number of models that combine online shopping with TV shopping, telephone shopping, radio shopping, and newspaper shopping. The development of e-commerce presents an omni-channel In addition, some popular online live broadcasts and related economic activities are also presented to consumers through camera and video recording, which is no different from traditional TV media.