Towards An Easy To Pay System (ETPS) For ECommerce Shafiq ur Rehman , Shaukat Wasi
Jawaid Ahmed Siddiqui
Department of Computer Science, National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences Karachi, Pakistan {shafiq.rehman, shaukat.wasi}@nu.edu.pk
Department of Computer Science Sukkur Institute of Business Administration Sukkur, Pakistan
[email protected]
the users has been addressed to an interface design extent. But the process of e-commerce has totally neglected the usability perspective.
Abstract— Electronic commerce is the paperless exchange of business information using electronic data interchange (EDI). The best way for E-commerce is through WWW. This paper identifies the issues related to the usability perspective of the Ecommerce as a process and proposes improvements to the Ecommerce process to resolve the issues identified. Today the application of e-commerce is more focused towards B2B ecommerce and less to B2C. Consumers having no credit cards are not targeted as customers. E-commerce websites are not secure due to the open payment method that requires credit card information. There are Ethical issues like applying hidden charges, taxes and the cost of shipment. The process is lengthy and complex as it requires formalities like filling multiple forms. We have proposed improvements to the E-commerce process in the form of improved payment process termed as reference payment method and elimination of the requirements of having a credit card. The objective of the proposed improvements is to increase the business by targeting more on end-users.
We have proposed improvements to the e-commerce that targets the B2C (business to consumer) approach of ecommerce. The process is secure, fast and efficient. We have proposed a central place for users to provide the basic information for starting operations. The consumer does not need to have even a bank account, hence no credit card required. No need to fill multiple forms; no need to create accounts on each e-commerce website. A new style of payment is proposed termed as the reference payment method. The term is used so because in this method the consumer does not pays directly to the e-commerce site but provides a reference to get the payment. In Section III the issues regarding the current process of ecommerce are identified in detail. Section IV describes the proposed improvements to the current e-commerce process.
Keywords- ETPS; cash-key; reference payment method
I.
INTRODUCTION
II.
In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, with the advancement of technology, particularly the Internet, the world has discovered a new path of opportunities, switching the transactions of traditional business process into a better process far superior in terms of efficiency, productivity, profitability and competitiveness.
A vast research is in process to improve the usability of the e-commerce environment. But the lacking feature is that either the suggestions for improvements focus the consumers to change their style of interactions with the e-commerce sites or they target the design of the e-commerce sites. E-BAP [3] is more focused to the design of the e-commerce site’s interface.
The Internet is now a valuable communication tool which offers small business a great opportunity to market itself internationally and reach a global client base. This simply means obtaining information at our fingertips, without wasting time, money and effort, and also to conduct real time transactions in a borderless world. Electronic commerce is the paperless exchange of business information using electronic data interchange (EDI). The concept of e-commerce is all about using the Internet to do business better and faster, it is a way for people to communicate with each other. It is also a way for a consumer to communicate with a company’s computer systems without human intervention.
Fiona and Davis [1] have identified the e-commerce issues like the navigation style, the response time and the design of the interface. The paper [1] also discusses the trust requirements and provides suggestions to improve trust but these suggestions are all about the authenticity of the ecommerce sites and not about the payment methods. Most of the improvements are introduced from the perspective of the B2B e-commerce. The article at e-future [2] discusses the back-end issues for the improvement of e-commerce. But the focus is on the integration of the sales with other business operations. We have proposed improvements to facilitate e-commerce for all the consumers (B2C approach) targeting e-commerce as a process. The true card (virtual card) [5] approach is very much closer to our approach as it also proposes a pre-paid card and a central authority for payments but still the method of payment is the
In the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) literature, research into the success or failure of Business to Consumer (B2C) E-Commerce sites has primarily focused on the usability [4]. The process currently used by the E-commerce websites for selling products has been developed focusing the Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce. The usability perspective of
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After creating an account on the e-commerce bank the user is asked to enter the 16-digit hidden code at the card. In response to this code the user will be e-mailed a cash key which is again a 16-digit alpha numeric key.
classical open payment method. Secondly our system is much more secure as we have proposed such steps that even if the prepaid card information is hacked the account is safe. III.
USABILITY ISSUES OF E-COMMERCE PROCESS
In this section we have tried to identify the usability issues of the current e-commerce process. Due to the Open Payment method that requires credit card information, the e-commerce sites are less secure. There is no method of authenticating an ecommerce site as being a fake or trusted site.
User Login
Hidden charges like taxes and shipment cost, which are not shown in buying process, can be added in original product’s price and deducted from the customer’s account without informing the customer. No Return and Exchange policies are defined at the e-commerce sites. No feedback is provided from the bank while deducing a huge amount from the user’s account. E-commerce sites require multiple complex forms to be filled by the customer which take a lot of time.
Cash key? Validate Cash key E-commerce Site Get Payment
Many of e-commerce sites require the customer to create account for performing transactions, therefore the users have to manage and remember all those accounts. Without having a credit card one can not perform any purchasing at the ecommerce sites.
Figure 1 System/Process
For the first time a user wants to see his/her account information user will have to enter the code available on the pre-paid card or the user has to enter a cash key. For next times user will be able to see the account information after entering the cash key. Note that even after entering the cash key user can not edit the information. For editing account information user will be sent a code through email. And on providing this code, will be able to edit the information. The reason for this double code process is that if some one is lucky enough to get the cash key of the user, he/she can not get any benefit because what ever he/she purchases from any site is shipped to the user’s address. It means for getting the things shipped to the thief’s address, he/she has to hack the email account of the user along with the cash key. So the system is much more secure.
E-commerce sites do not display the stock information. Next section describes the proposed system that tries to provide solution to all these problems. IV.
ETPS
ETPS (Easy to pay system) for E-commerce is a fast, secure and efficient system. The system actually proposes improvements to the current e-commerce process. The goal is to provide a solution to the usability issues present in the current e-commerce process by facilitating the B2C approach. We have proposed a central authority which we call as ecommerce bank where the consumer will be required to create an account. The e-commerce sites which want to have business with the e-commerce bank customers will get their selves registered at the central bank. It will be the responsibility of the e-commerce bank to verify the authenticity of the e-commerce site. So users will have no fear of fake sites. Requirements for registration will include the conditions of mentioning the return and exchange policy and the stock information etc. The system/process is shown in Fig.1.
Every time user visits to any e-commerce site and selects the product which user is willing to purchase. The e-commerce site asks the user to enter a cash key. On getting the cash key the e-commerce site gets it verified from the e-commerce bank (ETPS). The e-commerce bank checks the cash key from the account of the user and responses the rejection or acceptance of the cash key along with the shipment address of the user to the e-commerce site. On acceptance of the cash key the ecommerce site sends the billing information containing the amount of the product and the taxes plus the shipment charges. The user is informed some way (may be by sms or email or a popup window his browser) about the total bill figures and if the user agrees, the amount is paid to the e-commerce site and the site ships the product to the user’s shipment address provided by the e-commerce bank. In this way the system is secure and efficient. In the worst case if the user’s cash key, email account and all other information is hacked, even than he will not get much loss because of the limit of having a specific number of cards with a limited cost. The e-commerce bank also provides the facility of fund transfers. If the user wants to
For starting using the ETPS service the user has to create an account at the e-commerce bank site. The e-commerce bank asks for very basic information about the user as it required by some mail server. No credit card information is required. For starting real transactions at any e-commerce site the user has to buy a prepaid card issued by the e-commerce bank. For avoiding black to white money business we suggest that there should be some upper bound on the maximum amount at a card and on the number of cards a user can use at one time.
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authority. But we hope that the proposed system is a step forward to B2C e-commerce focused systems.
transfer some cash to another user’s account he will simply request for transfer by providing the user name, email address and other related information of the targeted person. Again for transferring funds the same process of verification is required as already described for editing the account information. All these type of steps are involved in order to make the transactions secure. V.
VI. [1] [2] [3]
CONCLUSION
The proposed improvements to the e-commerce process are much more targeted towards the end users. Focusing the usability perspective of the users is a key need for a business as it results in the user satisfaction and trust. Yet there are issues in the proposed system. One of the biggest issues is that who will be the central authority. Another issue is that who will convince the e-commerce sites to get registered with the central
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REFERENCES
Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Sid Davis, “Hci research issues in e-commerce”, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, VOL. 3, NO. 3, 2002. “Back-End Issues in E-Commerce”, URL: http://www.e-future.ca/. Shawren Singh, Geoff Erwin and Paula Kotze, “Electronic Business Accepted Practices (e-BAP): Standardion of HCI for E-Commerce in South Africa”, UNISA-TR-2001-22 , Technical report, School of Computing Unisa. Shailey Minocha1, Liisa H. Dawson, Ann Blandford and Nicola Millard, “Providing value to customer in E-commerce environments: the customer’s Perspective ”, Contemporary Research in e-Marketing Vol 2 (2005). http://www.trucards.com/
