ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC – E- COMMERCE
SUBJECT – CYBER LAW
ASSIGNMENT SUBMITTED TO

FACULTY OF LAW , UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW

For the partial fulfillment of the requirement in

B.A.LL.B( Hons.) -VI SEM (SECTION A)

Under guidance of:. Submitted by :

MS. RAMA GUPTA RIA GUPTA

FACULTY OF LAW ROLL NO.- 200013015009

UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW

FACULTY OF LAW

UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW
LUCKNOW ,UP

2022-23

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my Cyber Law teacher

Ms.Rama Gupta who gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful
project on the topic E – Commerce helped me in learning new things through a
lot of research .

I would also like to thank Dean of Law Faculty ,Professor B.D Singh for
providing all the help that was required in completing the assignment.

Lastly ,I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in
finalizing this assignment within the limited time frame.

The success and final outcome of this assignment required a lot of guidance and
assistance from many people and I am fortunate to get all the support for
completing this assignment.

Their guidance and assistance was really helpful in bringing this work to a
conclusion.

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 INDEX
.
S.NO. TOPIC PAGE NO.

INTRODUCTION 4

TYPES OF E -COMMERCE 5
BUSINESS

3. ADVANTAGE AND 6-7

DISADVANTAGE OF
ECOMMERCE

7.
8
EXAMPLES OF E
COMMERCE
8. ISSUES IN E- COMMERCE 9

9. CONCLUSION 10

10 BIBLIOGRAPHY 11

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 INTRODUCTION

What Is Electronic Commerce (Ecommerce)?

E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods
and services, or the transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic
network, primarily the internet. These business transactions occur either
as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-
to-consumer or consumer-to-business.
The terms e-commerce and e-business are often used interchangeably.
The term e-tail is also sometimes used in reference to the transactional
processes that make up online retail shopping.
In the last two decades, widespread use of e-commerce platforms such
as Amazon and eBay has contributed to substantial growth in online
retail. In 2011, e-commerce accounted for 5% of total retail sales,
according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By 2020, with the start of the
COVID-19 pandemic, it had risen to over 16% of retail sales.
History of Ecommerce
Most of us have shopped online for something at some point, which means we’ve
taken part in ecommerce. So it goes without saying that ecommerce is everywhere.
But very few people may know that ecommerce has a history that goes back before
the internet began.
Ecommerce actually goes back to the 1960s when companies used an electronic
system called the Electronic Data Interchange to facilitate the transfer of
documents. It wasn’t until 1994 that the very first transaction. Took place. This
involved the sale of a CD between friends through an online retail website called
NetMarket.
New technology continues to make it easier for people to do their online shopping.
People can connect with businesses through smartphones and other devices and by

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downloading apps to make purchases. The introduction of free shipping, which
reduces costs for consumers, has also helped increase the popularity of the
ecommerce industry.
TYPES OF E-COMMERCE BUSINESSES
Following are the most common types of e-commerce businesses and examples of
what they mean:
• Business to Consumer (B2C): B2C e-commerce is the most popular e-
commerce model. Business to consumer means that the sale is taking place
between a business and a consumer, like when you buy something from an
online retailer.
• Business to Business (B2B): B2B e-commerce refers to a business selling a
good or service to another business, like a manufacturer and wholesaler, or a
wholesaler and a retailer.
• Direct to Consumer (D2C): Direct to consumer e-commerce is the newest
model of ecommerce, and trends within this category are continually
changing. D2C means that a brand is selling directly to their end customer
without going through a retailer, distributor, or wholesaler. Subscriptions are
a popular D2C item, and social selling via platforms like InstaGram,
Pinterest, TikTok, Facebook, SnapChat, etc. are popular platforms for direct
to consumer sales.
• Consumer to Consumer (C2C): C2C e-commerce refers to the sale of a
good or service to another consumer. Consumer to consumer sales take place
on platforms like eBay, Etsy, and Fivver.
• Consumer to Business (C2B): Consumer to business is when an individual
sells their services or products to a business organization. C2B encompasses
influencers offering exposure, photographers, consultants, freelance writers,
etc.
• Business to Government (B2G): Also known as business-to-administration
(B2A), business to government involves the sale of goods and services
between the business sector as a supplier and a government entity as a
customer. For example, government agencies may orders goods or services
from external third-party contractors for cleaning and maintaining of public
spaces like parks.
• Consumer to Government (C2G): Also called consumer-to-administration
(C2A), consumer to government enables consumers to provide feedback or

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 request information regarding public agencies directly to the government
administration or authorities. Examples include paying an electricity bill or
taxes through a government website.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF E-COMMERCE

I. ADVANTAGES
Benefits of e-commerce include -
1. Availability- Aside from outages and scheduled maintenance, e-commerce
sites are available 24/7, enabling visitors to browse and shop at any time.
Brick-and-mortar businesses tend to open for a fixed number of hours and
may even close entirely on certain days.
2. Speed of access. While shoppers in a physical store can be slowed by
crowds, e-commerce sites run quickly, which is determined by compute and
bandwidth considerations on both the consumer device and the e-commerce
site. Product and shopping cart pages load in a few seconds or less. An e-
commerce transaction can comprise a few clicks and take less than five
minutes.
3. Wide availability - Amazon’s first slogan was “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore.”
It could make this claim because it was an e-commerce site and not a
physical store that had to stock each book on its shelves. E-commerce
enables brands to make a wide array of products available, which are then
shipped from a warehouse or various warehouses after a purchase is made.
Customers will likely have more success finding what they want.
4. Easy accessibility - Customers shopping a physical store may have
difficulty locating a particular product. Website visitors can browse product
category pages in real time and use the site’s search feature to find the
product immediately.
5. International reach -With e-commerce, businesses can sell to anyone who
can access the web. E-commerce has the potential to extend a business’s
customer base.
6. Lower cost - Pure play e-commerce businesses avoid the costs of running
physical stores, such as rent, inventory and cashiers. They may incur
shipping and warehouse costs, however.
7. Personalization and product recommendations -E-commerce sites can
track a visitor’s browse, search and purchase history. They can use this data

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 to present personalized product recommendations and obtain insights about
target markets. Examples include the sections of Amazon product pages
labeled “Frequently bought together” and “Customers who viewed this item
also viewed.”

II. DISADVANTAGES
Perceived disadvantages of e-commerce include sometimes limited customer
service, consumers not being able to see or touch a product prior to purchase and
the wait time for product shipping.

1. Limited customer service -If customers have a question or issue in a

physical store, they can see a clerk, cashier or store manager for help. In an
e-commerce store, customer service can be limited: The site may only
provide support during certain hours, and its online service options may be
difficult to navigate or not answer a specific question.
2. Limited product experience -Viewing images on a webpage can provide a
good sense about a product, but it’s different from experiencing the product
directly, such as playing a guitar, assessing the picture quality of a television
or trying on a shirt or dress. E-commerce consumers can end up buying
products that differ from their expectations and have to be returned. In some
cases, the customer must pay to ship a returned item back to the retailer.
Augmented reality technology is expected to improve customers’ ability to
examine and test e-commerce products.
3. Wait time - In a store, customers pay for a product and go home with it.
With e-commerce, customers must wait for the product to be shipped to
them. Although shipping windows are decreasing as next-day and even
same-day delivery becomes common, it’s not instantaneous.
4. Security -Skilled hackers can create authentic-looking websites that claim to
sell well-known products. Instead, the site sends customers fake or imitation
versions of those products – or simply steals credit card information.
Legitimate e-commerce sites also carry risk, especially when customers
store their credit card information with the retailer to make future purchases
easier. If the retailer’s site is hacked, threat actors may steal that credit card
information. A data breach can also lead to a damaged retailer reputation

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EXAMPLES OF ECOMMERCE
Ecommerce can take on a variety of forms involving different transactional
relationships between businesses and consumers, as well as different objects being
exchanged as part of these transactions.
1. Retail: The sale of a product by a business directly to a customer
without any intermediary.

2. Wholesale: The sale of products in bulk, often to a retailer that then

sells them directly to consumers.

3. Dropshipping: The sale of a product, which is manufactured and

shipped to the consumer by a third party.

4. Crowdfunding: The collection of money from consumers in advance

of a product being available in order to raise the startup capital
necessary to bring it to market.

5. Subscription: The automatic recurring purchase of a product or

service on a regular basis until the subscriber chooses to cancel.

6. Physical products: Any tangible good that requires inventory to be

replenished and orders to be physically shipped to customers as sales
are made.

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 7. Digital products: Downloadable digital goods, templates, and
courses, or media that must be purchased for consumption or licensed
for use.

8. Services: A skill or set of skills provided in exchange for

compensation. The service provider’s time can be purchased for a fee

ISSUES IN E-COMMERCE
Here are some of the most common e-commerce issues:
1. Privacy violation –Many times we heard that companies have sold the
personal details of their customers. This is a very common issue nowadays
even sometimes we allow sites to fully access our devices, and also when we
fill personal details in our account section these details can be used for many
purposes. Hackers can hack the servers of e-commerce sites and gets
personal information of users like credit card details, phone number, and
passwords.
2. Website spoofing –It is a technique to create the same lookalike website as
other websites. When the user by mistake types any other word in place of
the original word they land on a page that is the same as the original website.
Or when a link is circulated among a group of persons of the fake website
they basically contain malicious code or they lure customers to buy their
product and give their personal details.
3. Online piracy –It is unauthorized copyright of the original property. Many
sites provide free copyright e-books, e-music, e-movies which are unethical.
Sometimes original trademarks are used to sell fake products. It is basically
the use of other’s content without their permission or without any right to
download and distribute it. It has become the most dangerous threat to
content owners.
4. Email-spamming –Email spamming is a very common way to defraud
users. This technique is also known as phishing. In this, spammers sent
emails to customers and lure them with products and exciting offers. They
tempt users to purchase their products and give their personal details on their
fake websites. Sometimes these emails are marked as spam mails but most
often when we give personal details such as name, email, phone number

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 then they can easily send their mails to defraud users. It is also known as
junk mails.
5. Security: Security is a significant issue in e-commerce. Customers must
trust the online store they are purchasing from and be confident that their
personal and financial information is secure. Online businesses must ensure
that their payment systems are secure and that they have strong measures in
place to protect customer data.

CONCLUSION

E-Commerce refers to any form of business transaction conducted online. The

most popular example of eCommerce is online shopping, which is defined as
buying and selling of goods via the internet on any device. However, eCommerce
can also entail other types of activities, such as online auctions, payment gateways,
online ticketing, and internet banking.
Over the years, ecommerce businesses are growing and becoming more common
than ever.”
Currently, the 3 largest ecommerce companies in the world are:
• Amazon
• JD.com (‘Jingdong’ – the Chinese ecommerce giant)
• Alibaba (Another ecommerce business, better known than JD outside China)

E-commerce allows customers to overcome geographical barriers and allows them

to purchase products anytime and from anywhere. Online and traditional markets
have different strategies for conducting business. Traditional retailers offer fewer
assortment of products because of shelf space where, online retailers often hold no
inventory but send customer orders directly to the manufacture. The pricing
strategies are also different for traditional and online retailers. Traditional retailers
base their prices on store traffic and the cost to keep inventory. Online retailers
base prices on the speed of delivery.

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There are two ways for marketers to conduct business through e-commerce: fully
online or online along with a brick and mortar store. Online marketers can offer
lower prices, greater product selection, and high efficiency rates.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Websites
• www.investopedia.com
• www.businessnewsdaily.com
• www.bigcommerce.com
• www.ecommerceguide.com

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