E-commerce is the new popular business model today attracting consumers and sellers alike. While sellers find it convenient to sell their products online instead of through a brick-and-mortar building, consumers too find it convenient that everything they need is only a click away with online shopping. But like every online transaction, e-commerce shopping also has its own set of challenges. Online purchase can be viewed as a contract or an agreement finalized between the seller and the consumer, and there need to be some security measures to ensure the integrity of this dialogue between the two. E-signature solution is one such measure.
Electronic signature can play an important role in e-commerce transactions that involve documents like subscription deals and license agreements. Sellers need to get signatures of the buying users on these documents to ensure that the user agrees and complies with the document’s terms and conditions.
A good example of this would be an online shopping instance where a user is purchasing a software product online. With software purchase there is naturally a license agreement to be signed between the software owner and software buyer. Here, the owner has to ensure that the buyer is contractually obligated to adhere to the terms and conditions defined in the license agreement document.
But since this isn’t an in-person purchase, getting the buyer’s signature on a paper document is not an option. In such a situation, the software seller can use an electronic signature software to get the buyer’s signature on the license document and enforce compliance. This way e-signature software helps both the seller and the buyer secure their respective rights for the usage of the software by providing a secure, legal and paperless way of document signing.
The reason why electronic signature can ensure all-round security for online shopping transactions is because it offers security and assurance on various fronts:
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E-signature ensures that the information exchange between seller and buyer is kept private and confidential. The data is available for view to only the relevant people involved in the e-commerce transaction.
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E-signature protects the integrity of the information sent or received between seller and buyer, and ensures that the information hasn’t been modified in any capacity at any stage of the transaction. This is important to ensure that the buying and selling parties are on the same page about everything pertaining to the online purchase.
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E-signature helps in verifying the identity of the people involved in the e-commerce transactions. It provides a way via which buyer as well as seller can confirm that the other is indeed who he claims to be.
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Another authentication use that e-commerce seller can make of the secure electronic signatures is they can validate that their buyers have the authority to use whatever payment method they have chosen for the purchase.
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Since e-signatures are known to record every step of the online signing process, they make it possible to collect evidence regarding the e-commerce transaction to avoid any cases of repudiation by either of the transaction parties.
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