Q.Elaborate the steps involved in on-line trading.

• Registration: fill up a registration form to open an account with the vendor, including a password (your account and shopping cart are password-protected).
• Placing an order: browse and pick and drop items into the shopping cart (an online record of chosen items), then 'checkout'.
• Payment mechanism: pay by Cash-on-Delivery, cheque, net-banking (IMPS/NEFT/RTGS), credit/debit card ('plastic money'), or digital cash.

An online transaction can be visualised in three stages — a pre-purchase stage, a purchase stage, and a delivery stage — and except for delivery, every stage involves a flow of information. From the customer's standpoint, the process of online buying (online trading) involves three main steps:

1. Registration: Before shopping online, the customer must register with the online vendor by filling up a registration form. Registration means you now have an 'account' with that vendor. Among the details filled in is a password, because the sections relating to your account and your shopping cart are password-protected. Without a password, anyone could log in using your name and shop in your name — which could land you in trouble. Registration therefore both creates your identity with the seller and protects your account.

2. Placing an order: Once registered, you can pick and drop items into the shopping cart. The shopping cart is an online record of what you have picked up while browsing the online store — exactly as in a physical store, you can put items in and take them out. When you are sure of what you want to buy, you 'checkout' and move on to choose your payment options.

3. Payment mechanism: Payment for an online purchase can be made in several ways:

• Cash-on-Delivery (CoD): cash is paid at the time of physical delivery of the goods.
• Cheque: the vendor arranges to pick up a cheque and delivers the goods once the cheque is realised.
• Net-banking transfer: funds are transferred electronically over the internet using IMPS, NEFT or RTGS; the vendor arranges delivery after receiving the amount.
• Credit or Debit Card ('plastic money') — the most widely used medium. A credit card lets the holder buy on credit (the issuing bank pays the seller and the buyer repays later, often in instalments); a debit card allows purchases only up to the balance in the account, deducted instantly. To accept cards the seller needs a secure means of collecting card information, processed manually or through an online authorisation system such as an SSL Certificate.
• Digital Cash: electronic currency existing only in cyberspace; the buyer first pays a bank an equivalent amount of real money, downloads special software, and then draws and spends digital cash online.