E-Commerce Regulations 2002

Consumer Protection Distance Selling Regulations

• Gives extra protection to consumers who shops by phone, mail order, via the internet or digital TV. This includes:

• Rights to receive clear information about goods and services before deciding to buy
• Confirmation of orders in writing
• A cooling off period of seven working days in which the consumer can withdraw from the contract
• Protection from credit card fraud

Data Protection Act 1998

• Governs the processing of personal information held of living, identifiable individuals.
• Businesses must comply with this if they process personal information
• A business needs to be open about the use of information and must follow the 8 data protection principles when doing so

Business Support & Education

• UK government offers free training and advice for businesses that are considering adopting a strategy of e-commerce.
• Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) attempts to promote e-commerce through its innovative advice programme and has tried to encourage a nationwide knowledge network
• DTI also promotes a ‘digital content forum’ that specifically looks at the needs of the digital media industry

This section is about how business organisations plan for the growing of e-business

Strategic level decisions

• Strategic decisions have a big impact on the direction of a business, and whether it succeeds or fails in the marketplace.

Location of manufacture and service provision

• Businesses are always looking for the best location to carry out production activities, normally the relocate in areas where labour is cheap.
• If you operate solely online, e.g. eBookers then it does not matter where you are based.
• Some businesses have adopted an e-commerce website and outsourced their customer service function e.g.  

Re engineering of business processes

• A systematic method of examining everything a business does, from top to bottom
• Why are they done?
• How is it done?
• Is it still needed?
• Can it be improved?
• A business that adopts an eBusiness strategy will need to look at all of its functional areas to see how they integrate with the whole business.

Redefining the supply chain

• What is a supply chain?
• Supply chains differ for different products
• The internet allows firms to work more closely together.
• The supply chain can become integrated and shorter.
• Ideally customers benefit.

Investment in ICT

• Obviously businesses must invest in IT if they are to succeed in the use of eBusiness.
• Investment can include: Hardware, software, security, website design and maintenance, network costs.
• Would it be better to outsource the ‘IT’ function?

Acquisition and development of skills

• Basic IT skills are becoming essential for staff in all organisations.
• If a business is to adopt an eStrategy it is even more important that its employees are IT literate.
• Staffs need to be trained, decisions need to be made as to whether this is done internally or externally.
• Staff also need to know the implications of IT and how it will effect their job.

This section is about how individuals can prepare for the growth of e-business

Growth of home computing

• Home computing is continuing to grow

• Faster
• Cheaper
• More accessible internet
• Social networks
• Communication

• This means computers are becoming the central entertainment in households.

Employability and ICT skills

• Individuals increasingly have to consider their personal ICT skills.

• For those people who are out of work, or considering a career change, it is essential they possess basic computer skills.

Increase in flexible working models

• IT allows for more flexible working conditions, due to different forms of communication between individuals and organisations – working form home, video conferencing…etc
• Increase in part time and flexible working patterns.

• Secondments - Many people do not realise that it is possible to explore different career possibilities by temporarily changing roles within the same company. This is often known as ‘going on secondment'

• Contracting – Agreement between employer and employee on when you work, normally short term work.

• De skilling - is the process by which  labour within an industry or economy is eliminated by the introduction of technologies operated by semiskilled or unskilled workers.

• Re skilling -  Staff that lose their job due to ICT must be re skilled so they can gain employment. Company’s should try to re skill staff rather than lay them off