Mobile commerce

Mobile commerce is founded upon the increasing adoption of electronic commerce. The rapid growth of mobile
commerce is being driven by a number of positive factors, including the demand for applications from an increasingly
mobile consumer base; the rapid adoption of online commerce, thanks to the resolution of security issues; and
technological advances that have given wireless handheld devices advanced capabilities and substantial computing
power.

M-Commerce benefits for business

Surely, running a mobile app for ecommerce can’t be the sole guarantee of profit. This is a great additional value tool to
engage customers and offer experiences. Any amount of investment to make an app, if done wisely, will be justified by
loyal customers. Also, check your competition – if they have app, you should probably too.

Now we are going to name main advantages of m-commerce, with few practical examples.

(1) Faster purchases

Yes, many sites have mobile versions, though apps are generally 1.5 times faster when loading data and search results
on mobile devices. Moreover, there is no need to pull data from a server and so customers can browse and purchase
products faster. As mobile ecommerce apps offer same functionality as desktop apps, people may purchase items
directly within an app.

M-commerce revenue has been rising at 30-40% rate annually since 2014, and by the end of 2017 is expected to reach
$150b total. The biggest retail app Amazon increased number of customers from 43 million in 2015 to 67 million in
2016. The reason for such achievements is intuitive mobile browsing, which in turn drives sales up.

(2) Better customer experience

Because it matters. People are well familiar with how smartphones and tablets work, so they already know how to
navigate to desired products in few clicks. In addition to purchases, customers can share their joy of bought goods with
friends, or ask for advice from community of shopaholics. Smooth customer experience equals better conversion rates
and revenue.

To reach these goals, your online shopping app should be:

• Fast
• Convenient
• Interactive
• Exclusive

(3) Direct connection to customers (push notifications)

Shoppers get such alerts when they open a mobile app, and may get them even without activating an app. 50% of users
like notifications, and 80% of users say offers and rewards make them more loyal to a brand. This is personal
communication, if you look at it from another angle, store to customer directly. Most of people perceive informing
about news or discounts as care, and they want exclusive stuff.

(4) Deeper analytics

Knowing your customers equals prosperity in business these days. Knowing customers demands data, at least very basic
information like age, sex, location, shopping history. Within your mobile app you may build and set user analytics of
various levels of sophistication. It depends on your business strategy and a budget available to make an app.

With such data you will understand your target audience much better, and will be able to increase sales. Names, phone
numbers, emails, buying patterns and lots of other things in store. For instance, Walmart app that 22 million customers
use every month, uses mobile data, online data and sales data combined to deliver better customer experience. It is a
whole and enormous infrastructure.

(5) Cost reduction and productivity

By reaching your audience faster with a mobile app you obviously cut down marketing campaign costs. If an app has
social media integration, users will do their part too in spreading the word. You can even earn from placing ads within
your app later on.

(6) Store navigation/geolocation

Mobile apps have a much better competitive (technical) in regard to marketing opportunities. Front and back camera,
scanning codes, positioning system for location, compass, accelerometer, gyroscope and other build-in features can be
used for commercial purposes. One of the top benefits of m-commerce solutions is navigating users to nearest stores in
their vicinity via GPS.

ADVANTAGES OF M-COMMERCE
• Convenience: With just a few clicks on mobile devices, customers can already do shopping, banking,
download media files…and more than that. M-commerce also benefits retailers by many of their outstanding
features compared with responsive website and mobile site.
• Flexible Accessibility: User can be accessible via mobile devices and at the same time be accessible online too
through logging on to various mobile messengers and other networking platforms. On the other hand, the user
may also choose not to be accessible by shutting down his mobile device, which at times can be a good thing.
• Easy Connectivity: As long as the network signal is available, mobile devices can connect and do commerce
transactions not only mobile to mobile but also mobile to other devices. No need for modem or WI-FI
connectivity set up.
• Personalization: Each mobile device is usually dedicated to a specific user so that it is personal. Users can do
whatever they want with their handheld devices: modify the wallpaper, change view settings or modify contact
information as you send emails or e-payments.
• Time Efficient: Doing M-Commerce transactions do not require the users to plug anything like personal
computer or wait for the laptop to load.

Regulatory and Ethical Considerations in E Commerce

In the Information Age, technology evolves fast and data travels even faster. It can be difficult for the law to keep up
with new technologies and inventive ways to conduct e-business. Because of this, the law often lags behind, and
lawmakers end up drafting laws to clean up Internet messes instead of preventing them. Take digital file sharing —
dubbed piracy — for example, laws were not created to prevent digital piracy until millions of albums were stolen and
the music industry was crippled. The lag in laws mean that e-business executives must rely on ethics as they move
forward in e-commerce.

Client Privacy
Internet businesses have a legal obligation to protect the private information of their customers. E-commerce activity
often involves collecting secure data such as names and phone numbers associated with email addresses. Many e-
business activities also involve transactions, so customer banking or credit card information also ends up stored online.
Legally, it is up to the e-business to store and protect or dispose of this sensitive data. The Children’s Online Privacy
Protection Act, for example, protects the online privacy rights of children. Under this law, parents have control of what
personal information their children can give to e-businesses.

Advertising Online
Several online marketing issues spring from the inherent anonymity of the Internet. It is often difficult to know the real
identity of an e-business owner. A few online businesses take advantage of this in unethical or illegal ways. Some e

Businesses track the online activity of their customers so that they can show advertisements based on the customer’s
behavior. Behavioral advertising is not illegal, and it is not illegal to refrain from disclosing that an e-businesses tracks
activity, although many people consider this nondisclosure unethical.
Copyright Infringements
Due to the Internet’s free flow of information, plagiarism and copyright infringement is a continual problem. The
Digital Millennium Copyright Act addresses plagiarism and copyright infringement in the specific context of the
Internet and e-business. Under this law, it is illegal to use online technology to copy and distribute legally copyrighted
material, such as photography, articles or books, music or videos.

Net Neutrality
Net neutrality is the hotly debated idea that Internet users should have equal access to all websites. Most computers
retrieve websites at the same speed, depending on the user’s Internet account settings or service, no matter if the site is a
multibillion-dollar company or a neighbor’s blog. But some Internet providers have the capability to deliver different
websites at different speeds. This is an issue because some websites could pay providers to deliver their content at faster
speeds, while smaller business with less capital might not be able to afford the faster processing, and the Internet would
lose its free-access-for-all feel. The Federal Communications Commission currently supports net neutrality and bans
providers from participating in any program that offers extra pay for higher speed access to any websites.

Disintermediation and Reintermediation

 Intermediation is one of the most important and interesting e-commerce issue related to loss of jobs. The services
provided by intermediaries are-

(i) Matching and providing information.

(ii) Value added services such as consulting.

The first type of service (matching and providing information) can be fully automated, and this service is likely to be in
e-marketplaces and portals that provide free services. The value added service requires expertise and this can only be
partially automated.  The phenomenon by which Intermediaries, who provide mainly matching and providing
information services are eliminated is called Disintermediation.

The brokers who provide value added services or who manage electronic intermediation (also known as infomediation),
are not only surviving but may actually prosper, this phenomenon is called Reintermediation.

The traditional sales channel will be negatively affected by disintermediation. The services required to support or
complement e-commerce are provided by the web as new opportunities for reintermediation. The factors that should be
considered here are the enormous number of participants, extensive information processing, delicate negotiations, etc.
They need a computer mediator to be more predictable.

Legal Issues

Where are the headlines about consumers defrauding merchants? What about fraud e-commerce websites?  Internet
fraud and its sophistication have grown even faster than the Internet itself. There is a chance of a crime over the internet
when buyers and sellers do not know each other and cannot even see each other. During the first few years of e-
commerce, the public witnessed many frauds committed over the internet..

Fraud on the Internet

E-commerce fraud popped out with the rapid increase in popularity of websites. It is a hot issue for both cyber and
click-and-mortar merchants. The swindlers are active mainly in the area of stocks. The small investors are lured by the
promise of false profits by the stock promoters. Auctions are also conductive to fraud, by both sellers and buyers. The
availability of e-mails and pop up ads has paved the way for financial criminals to have access to many people. Other
areas of potential fraud include phantom business opportunities and bogus investments.
FIREWALL
A firewall can be simple or complex, depending on how specifically you want to control
your Internet traffic. A simple firewall might require only that you configure the software in
the router that connects your intranet to your ISP. A more complex firewall might be a
computer running UNIX and specialized software.
Firewall systems fall into two categories
• network-level
      • application-level.
Network-Level Firewalls
It can be used as packet filter. These firewalls examine only the headers of each packet of
information passing to or from the Internet. The firewall accepts or rejects packets based
on the packet’s sender, receiver, and port. For example, the firewall might allow e-mail and
Web packets to and from any computer on the intranet, but allow telnet (remote login)
packets to and from only selected computers.
Packet filter firewall maintains a filtering table that decides which packets are to be
forwarded or discarded. A packet filter firewall filters at the network or transport layer.

Application-Level Firewalls
These firewalls handle packets for each Internet service separately, usually by running a
program called a proxy server, which accepts e-mail, Web, chat, newsgroup, and other
packets from computers on the intranet, strips off the information that identifies the source
of the packet, and passes it along to the Internet.
When the replies return, the proxy server passes the replies back to the computer that
sent the original message. A proxy server can also log all the packets that pass by, so that
you have a record of who has access to your intranet from the Internet, and vice versa.

Introduction to Firewall
Firewall is a network security device, either hardware or software based, which monitors all
incoming and outgoing traffic and based on defined set of security rules it accept, reject or drop that
specific traffic.
Accept : allow the traffic
Reject : block the traffic but reply with an “unreachable error”
Drop : block the traffic with no reply
Firewall establishes a barrier between secured internal networks and outside untrusted network,
such as Internet.
A firewall can be simple or complex, depending on how specifically you want to control
your Internet traffic. A simple firewall might require only that you configure the software in
the router that connects your intranet to your ISP. A more complex firewall might be a
computer running UNIX and specialized software.
Firewall systems fall into two categories
• network-level
      • application-level.
Network-Level Firewalls
It can be used as packet filter. These firewalls examine only the headers of each packet of
information passing to or from the Internet. The firewall accepts or rejects packets based
on the packet’s sender, receiver, and port. For example, the firewall might allow e-mail and
Web packets to and from any computer on the intranet, but allow telnet (remote login)
packets to and from only selected computers.
Packet filter firewall maintains a filtering table that decides which packets are to be
forwarded or discarded. A packet filter firewall filters at the network or transport layer.

Application-Level Firewalls
These firewalls handle packets for each Internet service separately, usually by running a
program called a proxy server, which accepts e-mail, Web, chat, newsgroup, and other
packets from computers on the intranet, strips off the information that identifies the source
of the packet, and passes it along to the Internet.
When the replies return, the proxy server passes the replies back to the computer that
sent the original message. A proxy server can also log all the packets that pass by, so that
you have a record of who has access to your intranet from the Internet, and vice versa.

Introduction to Firewall
Firewall is a network security device, either hardware or software based, which monitors all
incoming and outgoing traffic and based on defined set of security rules it accept, reject or drop that
specific traffic.
Accept : allow the traffic
Reject : block the traffic but reply with an “unreachable error”
Drop : block the traffic with no reply
Firewall establishes a barrier between secured internal networks and outside untrusted network,
such as Internet.
A firewall can be simple or complex, depending on how specifically you want to control
your Internet traffic. A simple firewall might require only that you configure the software in
the router that connects your intranet to your ISP. A more complex firewall might be a
computer running UNIX and specialized software.
Firewall systems fall into two categories
 • network-level
      • application-level.
Network-Level Firewalls
It can be used as packet filter. These firewalls examine only the headers of each packet of
information passing to or from the Internet. The firewall accepts or rejects packets based
on the packet’s sender, receiver, and port. For example, the firewall might allow e-mail and
Web packets to and from any computer on the intranet, but allow telnet (remote login)
packets to and from only selected computers.
Packet filter firewall maintains a filtering table that decides which packets are to be
forwarded or discarded. A packet filter firewall filters at the network or transport layer.

Application-Level Firewalls
These firewalls handle packets for each Internet service separately, usually by running a
program called a proxy server, which accepts e-mail, Web, chat, newsgroup, and other
packets from computers on the intranet, strips off the information that identifies the source
of the packet, and passes it along to the Internet.
When the replies return, the proxy server passes the replies back to the computer that
sent the original message. A proxy server can also log all the packets that pass by, so that
you have a record of who has access to your intranet from the Internet, and vice versa.

Introduction to Firewall
Firewall is a network security device, either hardware or software based, which monitors all
incoming and outgoing traffic and based on defined set of security rules it accept, reject or drop that
specific traffic.
Accept : allow the traffic
Reject : block the traffic but reply with an “unreachable error”
Drop : block the traffic with no reply
Firewall establishes a barrier between secured internal networks and outside untrusted network,
such as Internet.

A firewall can be simple or complex, depending on how specifically you want to control
your Internet traffic. A simple firewall might require only that you configure the software in
the router that connects your intranet to your ISP. A more complex firewall might be a
computer running UNIX and specialized software.
Firewall systems fall into two categories
• network-level
      • application-level.
Network-Level Firewalls
It can be used as packet filter. These firewalls examine only the headers of each packet of
information passing to or from the Internet. The firewall accepts or rejects packets based
on the packet’s sender, receiver, and port. For example, the firewall might allow e-mail and
Web packets to and from any computer on the intranet, but allow telnet (remote login)
packets to and from only selected computers.
Packet filter firewall maintains a filtering table that decides which packets are to be
forwarded or discarded. A packet filter firewall filters at the network or transport layer.

Application-Level Firewalls
These firewalls handle packets for each Internet service separately, usually by running a
program called a proxy server, which accepts e-mail, Web, chat, newsgroup, and other
packets from computers on the intranet, strips off the information that identifies the source
of the packet, and passes it along to the Internet.
When the replies return, the proxy server passes the replies back to the computer that
sent the original message. A proxy server can also log all the packets that pass by, so that
you have a record of who has access to your intranet from the Internet, and vice versa.

Introduction to Firewall
Firewall is a network security device, either hardware or software based, which monitors all
incoming and outgoing traffic and based on defined set of security rules it accept, reject or drop that
specific traffic.
Accept : allow the traffic
Reject : block the traffic but reply with an “unreachable error”
Drop : block the traffic with no reply
Firewall establishes a barrier between secured internal networks and outside untrusted network,
such as Internet.
Types of Firewall
Firewalls are generally of two types: Host-based and Network-based.
Host- based Firewalls : Host-based firewall are installed on each network node which controls
each incoming and outgoing packet. It is a software application or suit of applications, comes as a
part of operating system. Host-based firewalls are needed because network firewalls cannot provide
protection inside a trusted network. Host firewall protects each host from attacks and unauthorized
access.
Network-based Firewalls : Network firewall function on network level. In other words, these
firewalls filters all incoming and outgoing traffic across the network. It protects the internal network
by filtering the traffic using rules defined on firewall. A Network firewall might have two or more
network interface cards (NICs). Network-based firewall is usually a dedicated system with
proprietary software installed.
Both types of firewall have their own advantages.
 E-Commerce Ethical and Legal Issues
The vastness of Internet advertising offers a solid platform for Electronic Commerce (or e-commerce) to explode. E-
Commerce has the ability to provide secure shopping transactions coupled with instant verification and validation of credit
card transactions. E-Commerce is not about the technology itself, it is about doing business leveraging the technology.

A technological innovation is followed by frequent incorporation of ethical standards into law. New forms of E-Commerce
that enables new business practices have many advantages but also bring numerous risks. Let’s discuss about the ethical and
legal issues related to e-business.

Ethical Issues

In general, many ethical and global issues of Information Technology apply to e-business. So, what are the issues particularly
related to e-commerce? Let’s list some of the ethical issues spawned with the growing field of e-commerce.

Web tracking

E-businesses draw information on how visitors use a site through log files. Analysis of log file means turning log data into
application service or installing software that can pluck relevant information from files in-house. Companies track individual’s
movement through tracking software and cookie analysis. Programs such as cookies raise a batch of privacy concerns. The
tracking history is stored on your PC’s hard disk, and any time you revisit a website, the computer knows it. Many smart end
users install programs such as Cookie cutters, Spam Butcher, etc which can provide users some control over the cookies.

The battle between computer end users and web trackers is always going on with a range of application programs. For
example, software such as Privacy Guardian, My Privacy, etc can protect user’s online privacy by erasing browser’s cache,
surfing history and cookies. To detect and remove spyware specially designed programs like Ad-Aware are present. A data
miner application, SahAgent collects and combines Internet browsing history of users and sends it to servers. The battle goes
on!

Privacy

Most Electronic Payment Systems knows the identity of the buyer. So it is necessary to protect the identity of a buyer who
uses Electronic Payment System.

A privacy issue related to the employees of company is tracking. Monitoring systems are installed in many companies to
monitor e-mail and other web activities in order to identify employees who extensively use business hours for non-business
activities. The e-commerce activities performed by a buyer can be tracked by organizations. For example, reserving railway
tickets for their personal journey purpose can be tracked. Many employees don’t want to be under the monitoring system even
while at work.

As far as brokers and some of the company employees are concerned, E-Commerce puts them in danger zone and results in
elimination from their jobs. The manner in which employees are treated may raise ethical issues, such as how to handle
displacement and whether to offer retraining programs.

Disintermediation and Reintermediation

Intermediation is one of the most important and interesting e-commerce issue related to loss of jobs. The services provided by
intermediaries are

(i) Matching and providing information.

(ii) Value added services such as consulting.

The first type of service (matching and providing information) can be fully automated, and this service is likely to be in e-
marketplaces and portals that provide free services. The value added service requires expertise and this can only be partially
automated. The phenomenon by which Intermediaries, who provide mainly matching and providing information services are
eliminated is called Disintermediation.

The brokers who provide value added services or who manage electronic intermediation (also known as infomediation), are
not only surviving but may actually prosper, this phenomenon is called Reintermediation.

The traditional sales channel will be negatively affected by disintermediation. The services required to support or complement
e-commerce are provided by the web as new opportunities for reintermediation. The factors that should be considered here are
the enormous number of participants, extensive information processing, delicate negotiations, etc. They need a computer
mediator to be more predictable.

Legal Issues

Where are the headlines about consumers defrauding merchants? What about fraud e-commerce websites? Internet fraud and
its sophistication have grown even faster than the Internet itself. There is a chance of a crime over the internet when buyers
and sellers do not know each other and cannot even see each other. During the first few years of e-commerce, the public
witnessed many frauds committed over the internet. Let’s discuss the legal issues specific to e-commerce.

Fraud on the Internet

E-commerce fraud popped out with the rapid increase in popularity of websites. It is a hot issue for both cyber and click-and-
mortar merchants. The swindlers are active mainly in the area of stocks. The small investors are lured by the promise of false
profits by the stock promoters. Auctions are also conductive to fraud, by both sellers and buyers. The availability of e-mails
and pop up ads has paved the way for financial criminals to have access to many people. Other areas of potential fraud include
phantom business opportunities and bogus investments.

Copyright

The copyright laws protect Intellectual property in its various forms, and cannot be used freely. It is very difficult to protect
Intellectual property in E-Commerce. For example, if you buy software you have the right to use it and not the right to
distribute it. The distribution rights are with the copyright holder. Also, copying contents from the website also violates copy
right laws.

Domain Names

The competition over domain names is another legal issue. Internet addresses are known as domain names and they appear in
levels. A top level name is qburst.com or microsoft.com. A second level name will be qburst.com/blog. Top level domain
names are assigned by a central non-profit organization which also checks for conflicts or possible infringement of
trademarks. Problems arise when several companies having similar names competing over the same domain name. The
problem of domain names was alleviated somewhat in 2001 after several upper level names were added to com.

Another issue to look out for is Cybersquatting, which refers to the practice of registering domain names with the desire of
selling it at higher prices.

Security features such as authentication, non-repudiation and escrow services can protect the sellers in e-commerce.

Ethical Issues
Web Spoofing
•Fake web sites created to gather the confidential information of people. (www.micros0ft.com)

Cyber-Squatting
Purchase and uses the existing domain name belong to the well-known organization for the purpose of infringing its
trademarks.

Privacy Invasion
• Personal details belong to consumers expose.
• Malicious programs delivered quietly via web pages could reveal confidential information.
• Cookie cutters, Spam Butcher.

Email Spamming
• Send or broadcast unwanted advertisement or correspondence over the Internet.

Online Piracy
• Unauthorized copyright of electronic intellectual property such a e-books, music or videos.
• Transfer of music and videos without the authorization of rights holders.

Web tracking
• Do you need to know who's visiting your website, and what they do when they get there?
• SahAgent collects and combines Internet browsing history of users and sends it to servers.

Copyright
• The copyright laws protect Intellectual property in its various forms, and cannot be used freely.
• The distribution rights are with the copyright holder.
The Threats Posed to E-Commerce Servers
• The server can be viewed as the central repository for your “E-Commerce Place of Business” [which consists of the actual
website which displays your products and services, the customer database, and the payment mechanism].
• Financial loss

Social Issues Security & privacy

• Customer will scared get cheated by the seller.
• Affect of IT department
• Loose confident of customer Shipping issues
• It effects both sides
• very high cost
• complexity of process

Conclusion
• Increase the security & privacy
• Make laws
• Provide friendly environment
• Do not expose your data so easily
• Be careful while entering your data at any site
• Update security tools regularly
• Firstly make sure to whom you are dealing is the real party

Social issues of E-commerce is referring to how the development of E-commerce has affected society since online shopping
growth in population. The social issue I will be looking at is ‘Changing Customer Perspective’, this basically includes how the
internet can be used by customers to buy products from countries across the world and it also allows customers to compare
prices of products from different companies to ensure they get the best offers. If your organisation offered a product which
was far too expensive then over a period of time you would notice a loss in the number of customers you were getting. This is
why its important you try and offer the best products and best prices to ensure you either maintain your customers or continue
to grow as an organisation by gaining new customers. Many laws have been put in place to ensure that customers receive an
excellent level of customer service, because when E-commerce started out people were unsure about the level of service that
they would get.

There are a number of legal issues that a manager of E-commerce needs to be aware of, for example, data protection. In the
UK if you own a E-commerce website/organisation there are three major acts/directives in which you must stick to, they are as
follows:

• Data Protection Act 1998

• Distance Selling Act 2000
• E-commerce Directive 2002

For a E-commerce website/organisation to collect any sort of information about their customers or even employees they must
ensure that are registered under the Data Protection Act. This information could include names, addresses, numbers and email
addresses. Whenever you collect the information off the customer/employee you must state exactly what you intend to do with
the data and must stick to this statement. You as the manager of the business must make sure the information is held securely
and if the customer/employee requested that the information be deleted you must comply and ensure it is done correctly. All of
this could effect a business because if a customer or employees details are revealed weather that be on purpose or accidental,
you can be held liable for prosecution.

The last issue I will be discussing are the ethical issues within E-commerce websites. New businesses entering into the E-
commerce environment will be facing a lot of new ethical challenges; it’s easy for a new business to get sidetracked by the
technical challenges which would result in them paying very little attention to the ethical implications. There are many ethical
problems that businesses can run into that would normally be addressed during face to face interaction, for example, selling
alcohol to an under age person over the internet. This is a lot harder to address over the internet than it would be to address in
your average shop that sells alcohol. Not only is selling alcohol to under age people illegal but its unethical as well.