Technology readiness index measures the readiness of consumers to accept different types of technology • The score suggest how an organisation can launch a new technology successfully.
Why people don’t shop online – Security
– Not being able to touch the product
– Time delay in receiving the product – Trust in the e-tailer
Five stages in consumer decision process – Awareness of need
– Search for more information
– Evaluation of alternatives
– Actual purchase decision – Post-purchase contact with firm electronic books are portable computer devices with flat screens that are loaded with digital book content via communication interfaces
Social search (using your friends’ activities to suggest something for you).
Stickiness is anything about a web site that encourages a visitor to stay longer. A web site is sticky if a visitor tends to stay for a long time and to return.
When you purchase or sell from an online trader outside the EU, the EU legislation on consumer protection does not apply
Data protection-‘directive on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data’ – Strike a balance between protection of individual and free movement of personal data within EU
Personal data must be processed fairly and lawfully, and only collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes or get consent.
No transfers outside the EU unless equal protection
You can keep the information of your previous buyer for a certain period of time
Unsolicited commercial communications (spam) Any direct mail/telefax/sms/direct call send/made from a business (aimed for sales) without the receivers permission is prohibited.
That means: newsletters are ok if the customer has agreed to receive them in connection to other online sales.
TRADER-Any natural person or any legal person, irrespective of whether privately or publicly owned, who is acting, including through any other person acting in his name or on his behalf, for purposes relating to his trade, business, craft or profession in relation to consumer contracts
CONSUMER- Any natural person, who, in contracts with traders, is acting for purposes which are outside his trade, business, craft or profession.
1. A buys a car to him and his family paying with his own money (consumer) 2. A buys a car that he will use for business travels and pays with the company credit card? (not)
PRE-CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION-to INFORM CONSUMER on:
1. The origin, nature, composition and use of the goods;
2. The quality, quantity, category and usual denomination;
3. The general legal and economic conditions of the sale including complete information on the price, postage costs including VAT and other taxes;
4. Date of production and expiry date; 5. Instructions of use;
6. Procedure available to consumers to terminate the contract
New 14 calendar day cancellation right instead of 7 working days for returning goods
The consumer may exercise the right of withdrawal even before the delivery and refuse taking delivery.
The Right of Withdrawal – exceptions Goods made to the consumer's specifications or clearly personalized - Article 16(c): this exception basically applies where the consumer provides specifications such as measurements, but not where he simply picks between standard features (options) generally proposed by the trader. Fresh (food) and digital goods that are not supplied on a tangible medium
• Privacy policy – For what purpose?
– How long? • relative: eg. until deleting registration • subjective: exact date – What data? (eg. name, e-mail address, tel. number)
– Handle of the data (shall the service provider give out to 3rd person?)
E-commerce Directive - Directive 2000/31/EC
• (a) You must display the name of your business, the company registration number (or proprietor's name), geographical address (not a PO Box number), contact information e.g., telephone number and email address, VAT registration number (if registered). • (b) You may refer to trade or professional schemes if applicable.
• (c) You must provide clear information on price, tax and delivery to buyers.
• (d) You must clearly display your site's Terms and Conditions.
• (e) You must acknowledge all orders. • (f) In commercial communication with your customers, you must clearly identify any electronic communication designed to promote your goods or services.
• (g) You must clearly identify the sender of all electronic communication.
• (h) You must clearly define any promotional offers and the qualifying conditions regarding these offers.
• (i) If you send unsolicited emails, you must clearly identify them as unsolicited.
The term ”intellectual property” refers to creations of the mind:
- Inventions
- Literary and artistic works
- Symbols - Names - Images
- Designs used in commerce
IP law deals with the formulation, usage and subsequent commercial exploitation of original creative works.
THE MAIN FORM OF IP( Intellectual property) of Copyright (artistic works) o Industrial Property
• a. Trademarks (product identity)
• b. Patent (inventions)
• c. Industrial designs (function and form of products) • d. Confidential information (trade secrets) • e. Geographical Indications (identifying goods as originating in a delimited territory or region)
Music, pictures, photos, software, designs, training modules, systems, etc. can all be traded through E-Commerce, in which case, IP is the main component of value in the transaction.
The company’s legal name, under which it is registered with a state government (its business name or trade name), the brand that the company uses to promote its products, and the domain name that the company uses to communicate or sell products online.
Internet Domain Names
• Domain name – a unique name that identifies an individual’s or company’s Web site. • Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) – Approves registrars of domain names • Domain names may be registered by filing the appropriate form with the domain name registration service and paying the appropriate fee. • Registrars assign names on a first-come, first-serve basis
Components of DMs
•2 parts in a domain name:
Top-level domain (TLD) - Generic top-level domains (gTLD) .com
- Country code top-level domains (ccTLD).bg Second-level domain (SLD)
Copyright is a form of protection provided to authors for their original intellectual work. This includes creative, artistic and intellectual works like: • The owner has exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute or perform the work in public. • Copyright do not require registration and the owner will have protection in most countries • Copyright last for the life of the author + 70 years after death
Copyright protects the expression of an idea and not the idea itself: • Copyright is only supposed to protect the specific expression, not the "idea“ behind it. So similar ideas, could not imply a direct copy of an expression. – Books, films, music, pictures, etc. – Computer programmers are considered artistic works under copyright law
Ex. While the plot, dialogue, images etc of The Matrix movie are protected by copyright (because these are all expression of an idea), the idea of a war between computers and humans, or a virtual reality world being used as a prison, is not protectable.
A symbol can be trademark protected
A trade mark is a sign which distinguishes a company’s product or service from its competitors. A trade mark can be: • The owner has exclusive rights to use the TM and legally prevent its use without authorization • TMs are specific to a country or a Union of countries (EU TMs) • TMs last for 10 years and can be renewed unlimited as long as the mark is used
A patent is an intellectual property right granted by government to an inventor for the exclusive exploitation of the invention (process or product) • The owner has legal rights to exclude others from making, using or selling the patent • Patents are specific to a country. • A patent normally last for 20 years.
Patent protection means that the invention cannot be commercially made, used, distributed or sold without the patent owner's consent (e.g. licence) o In return for this protection, the holder has to disclose the invention to the public. o The European Patent Convention (38 countries): provides single procedure for obtaining European patent and provides harmonised national rules on patentability and validity.
Different elements of a website are protected by IP rights: Website design (layout) Website elements: - images, texts, photos, logos, trademarks, software, databases, music - computer generated symbols, graphic user interfaces Hidden components (source code, algorithms)
The key point of vulnerability in e-commerce:
1client
2server
3communication channel
Dimensions of e-commerce security:
-Integrity- prevention against unauthorized data modification. The ability to ensure that the information transmitted on a web site has not been altered in any way of a third party.
-Non-repudiation- the ability to ensure that e-commerce participants do not deny their online actions. (Can a customer deny ordering the products?)
-Authenticity -authentication of data source. The ability to identify the identity of a person or entity you are transacting with on the internet. One instance of an authenticity security breach is spoofing, in which someone uses fake e-mail address, or poses as someone else.
-Confidentiality – The ability to ensure that messages and data are available only to authorised viewers. One type of confidentiality security breach is “sniffing”- a program is used to steal proprietary information on a network, including messages, company files, and confidential reports.
-Privacy- The ability to control the use of info the customer provides about himself to an e-commerce merchant. (hacker, taking the credit card info of a customer).
-Availability – The ability to ensure an e-commerce site continues to function as intended. One availability security breach is a DoS (Denial of Service) attack, in which hackers flood the website with useless traffic that causes it to shut down, making it impossible to users to access. ( If a post office destroys your mail/takes one year to deliver your mail. He has impacted availability of your mail). 1. Ubiquity: Ubiquity means state of being everywhere at once. With unprecedented growth in the sales of tablets & smart phones, laptops and other internet related gadgets, e commerce companies literally follow their consumers wherever they go. E commerce shopping can be done even when consumer is walking or jogging.

In web performance circles, “latency” is the amount of time it takes for the host server to receive and process a request for a page object. The amount of latency depends largely on how far away the user is from the servers.