International Journal of Recent Research and Review, Vol.

I, March 2012
ISSN 2277 – 8322

Electronic Commerce and E-wallet

Abhay Upadhayaya
Department of ABST,University of Rajasthan,Jaipur, India
Email: abhayu@rediffmail.com

Abstract- In electronic commerce, the challenges of systems. The main objectives of EPS are to increase

payment transactions were initially underestimated. efficiency, improve security, and enhance customer

Business via the internet and mobile telephony has convenience and ease of use. Although these systems

so far been dominated by the methods of payment are in their immaturity, some significant development

systems in traditional business. However, in light of has been made for business-to-consumer (B2C)

advances in e-commerce, traditional business models transactions the development and use of online payment

are increasingly coming up against their limits. To systems were identified as important concerns [1].

understand the concept of electronic commerce, E- Nonetheless B2C e-commerce is currently growing at

wallet is a convenient, easy-to-use, secure global around 25% per year and growth has been much higher

payment system. It is flexible “personal banking in some segments (e.g. travel).

system” with a number of payout and pay-in options.

II. PAYMENT CARDS
I-Payout use the latest security systems to ensure E-
Business people often use the term payment card as a
wallet security.
general term to describe all types of plastic cards that
Keywords- E-Wallet, Mobile commerce, Electronic consumes use to make purchases. The main categories
payment system, Microsoft Wallet of payment cards are credit cards, debit cards, and
charge cards.
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Credit card
Traditionally, a customer sees a product, examines it,
Has a spending limit based on the user’s credit history; a
and then pays for it by cash, check, or credit card. In the
user can pay off the entire credit card balance or pay a
e-commerce world, in most cases the customer does not
minimum amount each billing period.
actually see the concrete product at the time of
B. Debit card
transaction, and the method of payment is performed
Removes the amount of the sale from the cardholder’s
electronically. Electronic payment system or EPSs
bank account and transfers it to the seller’s bank
enable a customer to pay for the goods and services
account.
online by using integrated hardware and software

37
C. Charge card III. MOBILE COMMERCE

Carries no spending limit, and the entire amount Mobile commerce or m-commerce is defined as a
charged to the card is due at the end of the billing process of buying and selling of goods or services
period. Payment cards have several features that make through wireless technology. Most common
them an attractive and popular choice with both representative in this category is of course mobile
consumers and merchants in online and offline phone. Biggest benefit of m-commerce is, that terminal
transactions. For merchants, payment cards provide is portable and there is radio coverage in major cities.
fraud protection. When a merchant accepts payment There is also increasing amount of services available in
cards for online payment or for orders placed over the m-commerce sector. For example- Data or Information
telephone - called card not present transactions because services, which cover automatic or manual delivery of
the merchant’s location and the purchaser’s location are sport news, weather information, stock market updates
different - the merchant can authenticate and authorize to a mobile device. Financial services, which covers
purchases using a payment card processing network. For paying bill or buying stocks, or even getting automatic
U.S. consumers, payment cards are advantageous warnings if money in the account is running low or
because the Consumer Credit Protection Act limits the predefined limit is exceeded.
cardholder’s liability to $50 if the card is used
IV. E-wallet
fraudulently. Once the cardholder notifies the card’s
The electronic wallet (E-wallet) provides all of the
issuer of the card theft, the cardholder’s liability ends.
functions of today’s wallet on one convenient smart
Frequently, the payment card’s issuer waives the $50
card eliminating the need for several cads. The E-Wallet
consumer liability when a stolen card is used to
will also provide numerous security features not
purchase goods. Perhaps the greatest advantage of using
available to regular wallet carriers. Identification is
payment cards is their worldwide acceptance. Payment
required for every credit card transaction and the card is
cards can be used anywhere in the world, and the
equipped with a disabling device if the card should be
currency conversion, if needed, is handled by the card
tampered with. Electronic-Wallet is a digital wallet (also
issuer. For online transactions, payment cards are
known as a E-wallet) which allows users to make
particularly advantageous. When a consumer reaches
electronic commerce transactions quickly and securely
the electronic checkout, he or she enters the payment
[2].
card number and his or her shipping and billing
Electronic wallets being very useful for frequent
information in the appropriate fields to complete the
online shoppers are commercially available for pocket,
transaction. The consumer does not need any special
palm-sized, handheld, and desktop PCs. They offer a
hardware or software to complete the transaction.
secure, convenient, and portable tool for online
shopping. They store personal and financial information

38
such as credit cards, passwords, PINs, and much more. Then, E-wallets can be used for micro-payments. They
E-wallet is an electronic wallet for most important also eliminate reentering personal information on the
personal information (credit cards, calling cards, forms, resulting in higher speed and efficiency for
passwords, PINs, account numbers and more).So like a online shoppers. Microsoft Passport consists of several
real wallet; E-wallet keeps information in cards. Several services including, a single sign-in, wallet and kids
related pieces of information for example, a username, a passport services. A single sign-in service allows the
password and a URL. Also to personalize cards with customer to use a single name and password at a
icons, colors, and on some platforms, pictures. To help growing number of participating e-commerce sites. The
keep cards organized, the cards created are stored in shopper can use to make fast online purchases with a
categories. Wallet files can have many different wallet service [3]. Kid’s passport service helps to
categories, and can be put in any kind of card in any protect and control children's online privacy. We should
category. In addition, categories can be nested as well, protect our wallet file with a password. With a password
allowing placing categories within categories. protected wallet we must enter the wallet’s password
Different Wallets as per need can be created, before we can see the information on any of the cards in
and different information in each wallet can be stored. that wallet. Anyone can open a wallet that does not use
For example, a personal wallet file for our own cards a password so we should set a password for any wallet
and an office wallet file that we share with an assistant that contains personal information.
or other members of our team. We can place copies of A. Starting with e-wallet
the same cards in different files as appropriate. For When we start E-wallet for the first time, we are
example, we might want to place copies of the same prompted to create a new wallet file to store our
cards in different files as appropriate. For example, we information in. When we’re ready to add our own
might want our business credit card listed in both of our information, we can add new categories and cards to
wallet files for extra convenience. To facilitate the wallet and organize the information in a way that fits
credit-card order process, many companies are our needs.
introducing electronic wallet services. E-wallets allow B. E-wallet security
us to keep track of our billing and shipping information E-wallet protects your wallet information in two ways:
so that it can be entered with one click at participating  By requiring a password before displaying any cards
merchants' sites. E-wallets can also store echecks, ecash in a password protected wallet.
and our credit-card information for multiple cards. A  By encrypting (making unintelligible) the
popular example of an E-wallet on the market is information in cards in password protected wallets in
Microsoft Wallet. To obtain Microsoft Wallet, one our wallet file. This means that the information in
needs to set up a Microsoft Passport. After establishing
a Passport, a Microsoft E-wallet can be established.

39
 the file is translated into a secret code so that it can’t it's a physical device holding someone's cash and cards
be read by any other program. along with a Bluetooth mobile connection.

C. Backup VI. BENEFITS OF E-WALLET

For extra safety, we encourage to take backups of our E-  Send and receive payments anywhere in the world.
wallet files (as well as all of our important information).  Unlimited transfers.
The easiest way to do this is using the Automatic  Easy recurring payments and transfer.
Backup feature available on Windows PC. On this  Manage our account from our mobile phone.
platform, E-wallet will automatically make a backup of  World Ventures-branded prepaid MasterCard
our wallet file each time we close E-wallet. available.
V. TECHNOLOGY IN E-WALLET  Security for our bank account and credit card
numbers.
A digital wallet has both a software and information
 Email or SMS notifications after transactions
component. The software provides security and
 We are in complete control.
encryption for the personal information and for the
actual transaction. Typically, digital wallets are stored  Access our commissions faster.

on the client side and are easily self-maintained and  Pull money into our E-wallet from any bank

fully compatible with most e-commerce web sites. A account.

server-side digital wallet, also known as a thin wallet, is  Receive wired funds/transfers directly into our

one that an organization creates for and maintains on E-wallet.

its servers. Server-side digital wallets are gaining  Any bank account worldwide.
popularity among major retailers due to the security,  Transfer money from E-wallet to E-wallet without
efficiency, and added utility it provides to the end-user, sharing personal account numbers
which increases their enjoyment of their overall  Request paper commissions checks.
purchase. The information component is basically a VII. ISSUES TO TAKE CARE OF FOR E-WALLET
database of user-inputted information. This information
Main issue that should be taken care of for electronic
consists of shipping address, billing address, payment
payments system is Authentication which identifies
methods (including credit card numbers, expiry dates,
buyer and also makes sure that person is who he/she
and security numbers), and other information.
claims to be. Used methods are i.e. digital signature,
The key point to take from digital wallets is that they're
finger prints, password or smartcards etc. Data integrity
composed of both digital wallet devices and digital
which means, that there must be a way to verify that
wallet systems. There are dedicated digital wallet
data is not changed during the transactions.
devices such as the biometric wallet by Dunhill, where
Confidentially must also be preserved.

40
 VIII. SECURITY FOR ONLINE SYSTEMS B. Secure Electronic Transaction (SET)

There are two main systems for transaction security, SET is an alternative, more complex security system
secure socket layer and secure electronic Transaction. based on digital certificates and signatures [5]. SET
needs specific software and is more difficult for
A.Secure Socket Layer(SSL)
cardholders to obtain and use, and despite the high level
SSL is the widely used secure service system and is an
of security offered it has not gained widespread use.
important measure to establish trust between online
IX. REFERENCES
seller and buyer [4]. Encryption and decryption allow
secure transfer of information between an Internet [1] Electronic Commerce: A Manager's Guide Addison-
browser and server. Data cannot be intercepted or Wesley, 1997

changed during transmission. SSL also permits [2] Online reference

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_wallet
merchant identification through SSL server certificates.
[3] David Kosivr,”understanding electronic commerce:How
The SSL standard has been widely adopted because it is
online transactions can grow your business:, microsoft
relatively simple and easy to use and does not place
press, 1997
excessive demands on the average consumer’s home
[4] Zhang Jian, “Analyzes based on the SET agreement
PC. SSL has an over 90% share of security measures, electronic commerce safety mechanism”, Netinfo
about the same as credit cards among online payment Security, 2006(10),pp:9-11.
systems. Until recently, SSL provided services [5] Xu Wei, “e-commerce online payment security issues”.
exclusively for fixed networks. But as mobile networks joint Hefei University Journal, 2000 (3), pp:23-25.
are increasingly important e-commerce markets, SSL
services for wireless devices have been developed.

41