Operationally, following steps are involved in online trading:
Buyer finds seller → selection of goods → Negotiation of price and delivery terms → payment → delivery → post sale activity
1. Registration: First step in online trading is registration with the online trader by filling up a registration form. With registration buyer has opened an account with online trader. A password is created for the account which protects account and shopping cart which can be misused otherwise.
2. Placing an Order: An account holder can drop the items in the shopping cart. Shopping cart is an online record of what a person has picked up while browsing the online store. Once being sure of what a person wants to buy, one can check out and choose his payment options.
3. Payment Mechanism: In online trading payment may be made in any of the following ways:
- Cash On Delivery: Under this, the payment for goods ordered online may be made in cash at the time of physical delivery of the goods.
- Cheque: Another option is that the online vendor may arrange for the pickup of the cheque from the customer’* end. Upon realization, goods may be delivered.
- Net Banking Transfer: These days banks provide facility to the customers for electronic transfer of funds using internet. Therefore, a buyer can also make use of net banking money transfer to pay for the goods ordered.
- Credit or Debit Cards: These are also called plastic money. These cards are most popularly used in payment for online transactions. To accept credit card as an online payment type, the seller first needs a secure means of collecting credit card information from its customer. Payments through credit cards can be processed either manually, or through online authorization system like SSL Certificate.
- Digital Cash: It is a kind of electronic currency which exists only in cyberspace. It has no real physical properties, but offers the ability to use real currency.in an electronic format. For this, the buyer has to *** cash in bank account which issues equivalent digital cash to the person which can be used for online trading. It is more secure than credit or debit cards.
