Transaction

When goods and services are bought or sold between businesses, individuals, or any private or public organizations over electronic networks, then such an action is called a transaction. Gone are the days, when you had to carry loads of cash with you when you were going out to a store to buy a car, now we are blessed with digital payment options like UPI’s, credit and debit cards, etc. using which we can make large payments in just a few clicks. This act of paying for goods and services digitally using a mobile or a laptop over a wireless access network is basically what is termed an eCommerce transaction. An online transaction begins at the initial contact phase between the buyer and the seller and ends after the goods/ services are delivered to the buyer.

Stages To An eCommerce Transaction

There are basically three stages to any eCommerce transaction -

Pre-purchase/Sale 

This is the stage at which your product meets the eye of your customers via advertisements on the internet.

Purchase/Sale

At this stage, the buyer makes a decision about buying the products/services, finalizes the price of the product with the seller, and makes the payment.

Delivery Stage

This is the final stage where the goods bought by the buyer are delivered to him/her.

Steps involved in an eCommerce transaction 

Registration

Registration is the first and foremost step to making any online transaction. If you are a buyer willing to buy some grocery item from any online store, you would first have to register yourself with the online store by filling up their registration form which has basic details like your name, email id, address, etc. Almost every online store will ask you to secure your shopper’s account with a password.

Placing an Order

The online customer makes a choice out of all the options and varieties of products available on your website. The customer then adds the selected goods in his ‘shopping cart’ which keeps a record of all the items selected by the buyer to be purchased, the number of units or quantity desired to be bought per item selected, and the price for each item. The buyer then proceeds to the payment option after selecting all the desired products.

Payment

The customer then proceeds with the payment for the purchase to authenticate it. The payment can be made via various options like Cash on Delivery, Cheque, Net Banking Transfer, Credit or Debit cards, Digital Cash.

And this is how an eCommerce transaction takes place.