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How will you ensure the security of your informations ?

There is a protocol called SSL which protects the informations forwarded to an Internet server. The Internet sites addresses which begin with “http” are protected through this protocol. This system is actually used today in every coded transaction, based on creditcards, within the e-commerce.

The main features of this security system are:

• Server confirmation, so that the customers are sure they have accessed the right Internet site;
• A safe communication channel will be created, by coding the informations forwarded by the user to the server, thus blocking any unauthorised access (hacking) to the data during its transmision.

SET is a new system created to ensure the security of the Internet transactions, made through credit cards. Actually, almost every big corporation related to e-commerce, like Microsoft, Netscape, Visa and MasterCard have already taken up the SET system.

The SET (Secure Electronic Transaction ) is an open technical standard for the commerce industry developed by Visa and MasterCard as a way to facilitate secure payment card transactions over the Internet. Digital Certificates create a trust chain throughout the transaction, verifying cardholder and merchant validity, a process unparalleled by other Internet security solutions. Software vendors whose products pass SET Compliance Testing are eligible to display the SET Mark on their products, as are merchants, financial institutions, and promotional sites that utilize or advertise licensed software.

What payment ways will you use?

Credit Cards:

Up until now, the most popular payment way for the products and services offered through the Internet was and still is the credit card. How is it done? The customer will submit “online” an order form, specifying all the required informations about the credit card. The larger the credit card range covered by the seller is, the chances of Internet sales increase, by enlarging the range of the potential customers.

ATM cards:

These cards are highly used in Europe and are also known as "EC Cards". The most important advantage these cards hold for the business people is lower transaction costs, compared to those of transactions made through ordinary cheques.

Buyer's cards:

These cards play the same role as the credit cards - the companies will issue buyer's cards to their employees, in order to give them the possibility to buy products and services within certain business domains.

E-Cheques:

The electronic cheques have the same features as the chequest printed on paper. In it's simplest format, this system will require the customer to fill in a form within the e-store. The stored data will be transfered to the store's owner, who will print them on an ordinary blank cheque. But this payment way has only recently begun to develop.

Digital wallet:

This electronic encoding application can be considered as acting as a real wallet during e-commercial transactions. A wallet can keep for it's owner informations about the payments, a secure form to identify the user and delivery information in order to increase the speed of the product's delivery terms.

The buyer will benefit from the information encoding, thus having nothing to worry about hackers; some wallets will also automatically insert delivery terms in teh seller's webpage and they will give to the buyer the choice of payment made either by e-cheque or by e-cash.

The businessmen are also protected against fraud.

Generally speaking, the wallets are hosted on the user's own computer, but there are newer versions which will place the wallets directly on the credit card's issuer server (Netscape and Microsoft use today the wallet technology).

The e-wallet is an alternate solution for the credit card security. During the wallet initiation process, the user will supply his credit card information and he will receive a code related to his credit card. This code will prove to be decisive during a transaction in an e-store, and it will be checked by the credit card issuer.

E-charge:

is a system that allows the user to charge it's own phone bill with the Internet purchase price. This system is available, for now, only in the United States of America and Canada, but an European system is to be completed.

E-cash:

In order to be able to use this system, both the customer and the seller must have accounts opened at the issuer's bank. The so-called application of the e-wallet, which will coordonate and transfer the e-cash, will be provided by the bank. The savings deposited into the current account are converted to e-cash and then transferred into the e-wallet, where they will be kept for future refference.

Traditional payment ways:

Electonic payment systems are only starting to gain popularity and many customers still use cheques printed on paper, payment at delivery or cash payment in advance.

The e-commerce variants have some advantages that can be put like this

Advantages for the customer:

• increased convenience
• multiple options
• easy to locate informations
• personalized pages

Advantages for the seller:

• bringing new customers through a new distribution channel
• increased sales to the old customers
• sales by request
• lower handling and stocktaking costs