Online Transactions and Payment Mechanisms

The Online Transaction Process

A typical e-commerce purchase moves through a broadly standard sequence of steps:

1. Browsing and product selection — the customer visits a website or app, searches for or browses products/services, and views details, prices, images, and reviews.
2. Placing the order — the customer selects the desired items, adds them to a cart, and confirms quantities, sizes, colours, or other options as applicable.
3. Providing delivery and contact details — the customer enters the address for delivery and contact information for order updates.
4. Choosing a payment method and making payment — the customer selects one of the available online payment mechanisms (below) and completes the payment, after which the platform typically sends an order confirmation.
5. Order processing and dispatch — the seller (or the seller's warehouse/logistics partner) picks, packs, and hands over the order to a transport/courier service for delivery.
6. Delivery and after-sale service — the goods reach the customer, who can typically track the shipment online; if there is a problem, the customer can seek a replacement, refund, or support through the platform's customer-service channel.

Online Payment Mechanisms

Because an online transaction cannot be settled with physical cash at a counter, e-commerce depends on electronic payment mechanisms:

• Debit card and credit card — a card linked to the customer's bank account (debit) or a pre-approved credit limit (credit) is used to authorise payment directly on the website/app or through a linked payment gateway.
• Net banking — the customer is redirected to their own bank's secure website/app to authorise the payment directly from their bank account.
• Digital wallets (e-wallets) — a customer pre-loads money into an app-based wallet (or links it to a bank account/card) and pays from the wallet balance with a few taps, without re-entering card or bank details each time.
• UPI (Unified Payments Interface) — an instant, app-based system that lets a customer transfer money directly between bank accounts using a mobile phone and a UPI ID or QR code, without sharing bank account details with the seller. UPI has become one of the most widely used online payment mechanisms for retail e-commerce in India.
• Cash on Delivery (COD) — although not itself an "online" payment method, many Indian e-commerce platforms still offer COD (paying in cash to the delivery person on receipt of goods) as an option alongside true online payment, mainly to accommodate customers who are unfamiliar with, or distrustful of, electronic payment. …