E-commerce

John ordered a number of small items from e-Toys4U.hk for his childs birthday. The items included a game console together with several games,, a tricycle, music CDs, an e-book (compatible with his e-book reader), an iPod engraved with his childs name and a selection box of chocolates. Some items arrived a month before his childs birthday. Other items did not arrive at all. John doesnt have a telephone number to contact e-Toys4U.hk, and it is taking a few days to get a response to e-mails which he has sent demanding redress. Does John have any protection under existing rules, particularly those concerning distance contracts andor the provision of information society services, and are there any proposals for this position to change in the future

Considering the drastic growth in telecommunication technologies today   such as the internet and internet services   this decision of John to order some products online may appear quite understandable. Due to the current developments in these technologies, more and more people nowadays are spending longer hours in front of their computer screens, doing their school works, their papers for work and just simply playing some online games as past time. The rise of the internet caught the world by surprise. A lot of services and activities suddenly sprung from it, and a few years later, almost anything can already be easily done through these internet services and technologies.  These advancements have surely brought the world into a new technological era. In this generation, almost all of mans activities rely on computers and the global capabilities of the internet and the World Wide Web. In simpler terms, almost everything is becoming accessible by just one click of a button. May it be in the fields of education, governance and business, internet technologies appear to be changing a lot of processes and operations. For the field of education, there is e-learning which has already opened a lot of opportunities and possibilities for distance learning systems. In governance there what is called e-governance. This internet service allows political organizations to manage their activities and operations as well as their information resources. But aside from these fields, there dominant internet service that is already changing a lot of thing in the current contemporary society this is e-commerce. Over the years, e-commerce has become a widely known internet service which enables people to transact businesses, shop, sell and trade online. It has made a lot of business operations a lot easier and more efficient, and it is currently dominating the World Wide Web alongside other popular internet services like gaming and information search. Johns situation is a clear portrayal of an e-commerce transaction. What he did was he ordered some items, paid for it and waited for them to be delivered all through the aid of his computer and an internet connection. He did not have to go out and find the best stores to shop, rather, he transacted everything with just some clicks on his computer. This is basically the essence of e-commerce. However, considering Johns case, it can be observed that he became faced with some issues concerning the service he availed. This case shows that not in all situations do e-commerce transactions become effective and efficient. At times, it can also be associated to a lot of issues that are to be discussed in the succeeding parts of this discussion. However, firstly, the ideal of e-commerce must be understood in order to learn the nature of the internet service. By doing this, the aspects that might have affected or caused Johns dilemmas might be discovered. This will also aid in devising the possible solutions to this issue.
E-Commerce
What is E-Commerce
E-commerce has become a popular technological term in the twentieth century business world. Together with the growth of the internet and the World Wide Web, e-commerce also emerged as one of the most dominant and implicative internet services which has the capability to change and improve a lot of individual and organizations day-to-day business transactions and operations. Over the years, a lot of studies have been conducted that veer towards the understanding of this technology. These studies have created different notion on the ideal of e-commerce, however, one definition seems to appear similar among all these descriptions. Generally, e-commerce was defined as operations or processed that,
    business transactions that are conducted electronically over a computer network. It encompasses all aspects of business and marketing processes enabled by Internet and the Web technologies.  (Parsons  Oja, 2008)
Aside from this, e-commerce also encompasses the products and kind of transaction involved in delivering these products to the clients. Thus, a more in-depth description of e-commerce would have to state, that it equates processes that,
    include many kinds of physical products, digital products and services. Physical products offered at e-commerce sites include such goods as clothing, shoes, skateboards, and cars. Most of these products can be shipped to buyers through the postal service or a parcel delivery service.  (Parsons  Oja, 2008)
Considering these definitions, a simplistic ideal of what e-commerce is can easily be formed. In several ways, it appears like e-commerce is the virtual version of the typical and conventional business transaction. If in the non-virtual ideal, a person would have to walk right into a store, find a product, pay the amount and receive the product right away, in e-commerce, the buying and selling appear to be done through the aid of the electronic media. In this virtual form of selling and buying, clients just have to visit any online store which that are mostly readily available through the search engines in the internet, purchase products by looking through the online catalogs, pick a product by simply clicking buttons, pay the item through a credit card account and then the product shall be then shipped right in front of their door steps. Over the years, this technology has become a trend already. A lot of people suddenly became attracted to shopping online despite the fact that they are not actually seeing the items in person. One factor that was seen to trigger this fancy is the perceived easiness and convenience of shopping online. Through this method, people do not have to spend on gas or fares anymore since they are already given the choice to just connect to the internet, find an online store and shop without the hassles and bustles on the roads. And due to this increasing demand on e-commerce sites, a lot of studies and researches on the technologys efficiency and effectiveness have already been conducted.
In most of these studies, it was found that due to the rapid developments that were seen to occur in this technology, the range of products and services offered was also seen to expand even further. Before, e-commerce was only known for delivering items that are easy to ship. However now, due to the development in computer and internet literacy, a lot of people have already recognized the possibility that e-commerce can also touch a lot of other products and services aside from the small items. Today, it can be observed that aside from products, e-commerce also gives way to the delivery of digital products such as music tracks, videos, news, information and softwares (Parsons  Oja, 2008). What enables this possibility was the reality that these products, unlike the tangible ones do not have to be shipped or delivered anymore, but instead, they could just be easily sent through email accounts like information and messages. Another advantage that this kind of products also hold is that it can easily be received by the clients as well, since these items do not have to undergo the postal service anymore.
Aside from these products, a wide range of services have also been made possible by e-commerce. One of these innovative  business ventures are the online tutorials, online editing jobs, online postage of service requests like food delivery, home massage service and a lot of other services. This entails another advantage, but this time, on the end of the businessmen. Earlier on, it was mentioned that e-commerce does a lot if minimizing the transportation costs of clients when they go shopping. But on the other hand, it can be observed that e-commerce also promises a lot of advantages on the end of the entrepreneurs. For one, they are being given the chance to save in terms of rental fee in stalls and office spaces. Also, they are also given the opportunity to save the energy and effort they need exert in going to the store or to the office regularly to supervise the business operations and communicate with their clients personally. In e-commerce, businesses obviously do not need office spaces or stalls anymore. Through this technology, the internet becomes the venue for their virtual stores. Paying the domain fees in creating websites apparently does not appear as costly as building a store or renting a space, and aside from this, e-commerce also seems to save businessmen the energy and effort in going to and fro their shops.
In looking at the aforementioned characteristics of e-commerce, it can be observed that Johns situation clearly falls in this technology. Basically, the steps that John took in ordering and paying for the items for his childs birthday parallel the basic steps in an e-commerce transaction. It can also be observed that the online store he visited is located in Hong Kong since the website consisted of the country domain, hk which stands for the countrys initials. Considering this, it can easily be assumed that one of the primary reasons why John resorted to utilizing e-commerce was the convenience that it promises. Through this technology, he could easily purchase imported items from far off countries by just simply visiting their websites. This obviously saved him a considerable amount of money he could have spent in plane tickets. Aside from this, in looking at the online store.