Suraj R. Agrawal

(1) Growth of e-commerce and concerns emerging therefrom: (i) The rapid growth of information and communication technology has resulted in substantial expansion of the supply and procurement of digital goods and services globally, including India. The digital economy is growing at approximately 10% per annum, significantly faster than the global economy as a whole. (ii) At present, in the digital domain, business may be conducted without regard to national boundaries and may dissolve the link between an income-producing activity and a specific location. Hence, business in digital domain doesn’t actually occur in any physical location but instead takes place in "cyberspace." Persons carrying business in digital domain could be located anywhere in the world. Entrepreneurs across the world have been quick to evolve their business to take advantage of these changes. It has also made it possible for  the businesses to conduct themselves in ways ...

Global Scenario United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has reported that global E- commerce sales hit $ 26.7 trillion in the year 2019. The value of global B2B e-commerce was $ 21.8 trillion, representing 82% of all e-commerce, including includes both sales over online market platforms and electronic data interchange transactions. Further, the B2C e-commerce value was $ 4.9 trillion in the year 2019. The top three countries effecting B2C e-commerce sales were China, the United States of America and the United Kingdom. The top ten B2C companies are headquartered majorly in North America or China. The cross-border B2C ecommerce amounted to $ 440 billion in the year 2019. Indian Scenario The Indian E-commerce industry has been on an upward growth trajectory and is expected to surpass the US to become the second largest E-commerce market in the world by 2034. According to the Indian E-commerce Industry Report (IBEF 2019), India e-commerce sector will reach US$99 billio...

E-commerce is a method of conducting business transactions and not a business transaction by itself. Therefore, the contents of a business transaction done through e-commerce means is no different from that of a business transaction carried out through traditional means. New business models expand the e-commerce frontier in two ways.  First, new business models can enable more transactions to move online in a given market or for a given set of participants. Second, new business models can enable whole new markets to emerge for goods and services that previously could not have been bought or sold online, or allow new participants to enter the market. Digital technologies enable e-commerce innovations and often serve as the backbone of business model developments. Some of these technologies, like smart assistants enabled by artificial intelligence (AI), constitute new channels for selling or purchasing products over electronic networks. Similarly, online payment innovations can help ...

E-commerce or electronic commerce is one of the main components of the Digital Economy. In its widest sense, it encompasses consumer and business transactions conducted over a network, with the help of computers and telecommunications. In other words, e-commerce refers to the exchange of goods or services for value on the internet. E-commerce, inter-alia, includes, online shopping, online trading of goods and services, electronic fund transfers, electronic data exchanges and online trading of financial instruments. The Indian Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy defines “e-commerce” to mean buying and selling of goods and services including digital products over a digital and electronic network. OECD defines e-commerce as the sale or purchase of goods or services, conducted over computer networks by methods specifically designed for the purpose of receiving or placing orders. Accordingly, whether a commercial transaction qualifies as e-commerce is determined by the ordering method ra...