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'''Moscow State Forest University''' (MSFU) is a specialized establishment of higher education which trains engineering personnel, scientists as well as bachelors and masters for forest industry, wood processing and pulp-and-paper industry and is the major educational and scientific centre of forest complex of the country.
Online shopping is the process consumers go through to purchase products or services over the internet. An '''online shop''', '''Internet shop''', '''webshop''' or '''online store''' evokes the physical analogy of buying [[product (business)|products]] or [[service]]s at a bricks-and-mortar [[retailer]] or in a [[shopping mall]]. It is an [[electronic commerce]] application used for [[Business-to-business electronic commerce|B2B]] or [[Business-to-consumer electronic commerce|B2C]]. Online shopping is popular mainly because of its speed and ease of use.
There are 9 faculties in [[university]] specialized in forest engineering and 1 faculty specialized in electronics and computer science [[FEST|Faculty of Computer Science (aka FEST)]]. [[FEST]] was founded in 1959 on initiative by academician [[Sergey Pavlovich Korolev]].
==Price comparison==
An advantage of shopping online is being able to use the power of the internet to seek out the lowest prices for items or services. For example if you are buying a digital camera you should enter "digital camera" into a search engine or a price search engine. Most price search engines have the advantage of store ratings and reviews. Getting the lowest price is important but it is more important to make sure the merchant or store your are purchasing from is [[#Security issues|reputable]].
==Steps when buying online==
*Browse product categories using a [[web browser]]
*Put items into virtual [[shopping cart#Shopping carts as software|shopping cart]] (or market basket).
::Just as in a physical store viewing the contents of the cart can be done at any time.
::Quantaties of products can be changed or deleted.
*Checkout
::[[Login|Log in]] or register by choosing a [[username]] and a [[password]].
::Enter personal data.
:::Billing address
:::Shipping adress (can be different from the billing address)
:::Phone number
:::E-Mail address (usually optional)
::Choose [[#Means of payment|means of payment]]
::Choose delivery speed and method ([[mail|post]], [[courier]] and [[logistics]] service, etc.)
*Confirm order
::After editing the personal data a confirmation page is displayed so that the online shopper can approve, change or abort the order.
*Logout
In addition to a shopping cart system a recurring user could be recognized again by storing a "[[Cookie]]" on his computer. That way he can purchase an item by just clicking on it without having to login and enter the credit and shipping information again. [[Amazon.com]] was granted the United States Patent Number 5,960,411 for this method - the famous Amazon "[[Amazon.com|One-Click Patent]]".
==Means of payment==
Online shoppers commonly use their [[Credit card]] for making payments, however some systems enable users to create accounts and pay by alternative means, such as
* All kinds of [[Electronic money]], [[Ecash]] (or digital money)
* [[Cash on delivery]] (C.O.D.)
* [[Cheque]]
* Money transfer / delivery on payment
* Postal money order
Once a payment has been accepted the goods or services can either be downloaded from the internet or delivered to the consumer via traditional means.
==Security issues==
User and payment data is encrypted by [[Secure Sockets Layer|SSL]] when it is transferred on the Internet. Quality seals can be placed on the Shop webpage if it has undergone an independent assessment and meets all requirements of the company issuing the seal. The purpose of these seals is to increase the confidence of the online shoppers, the existence of many different seals foils this effort to a certain extent. Privacy of personal information is a big issue. In spite of Privacy Guidelines of the [[OECD]], for example, privacy violations still occur and hamper eCommerce from developing to its full potential. Other issues of concern can include fluctuating exchange rates for foreign currencies, local and international laws and delivery methods.
==Setting up a shopping cart system==
* Simple systems allow the offline administration of products and categories. The shop is then generated as HTML files and graphics that can be uploaded to a webspace. These systems don't use an online database.
* A high end solution can be bought or rented as a standalone program or as an addition to an [[Enterprise_resource_planning|ERP]] program. It is usually installed on the company's own webserver and may integrate very well into the existing [[Supply chain|supply chain]] so that ordering, payment, delivery, accounting and warehousing can be automated to a large extent.
* Other solutions allow the user to register and create an online shop on a portal that hosts multiple shops at the same time.
* Open Source solutions can be adapted and installed on a webspace.
* There are also commercial systems that can be tailored to ones needs so that the shop does not have to be created from scratch. By using a framework already existing software modules for different functionalities required by a webshop can be adapted and combined.
==History==
* 1990: [[Tim_Berners-Lee|Tim Berners-Lee]] wrote "The [[WorldWideWeb]] browser" using a [[NeXTSTEP|NeXT]] computer.
* 1994: [[Netscape Communications Corporation|Netscape]] released the Navigator browser in October under the code name [[Mozilla]]. Pizza Hut offered pizza ordering on its Web page. The first online bank opened. Attempts to offer flower delivery and magazine subscriptions online. "Adult" materials were also commercially available very soon. [[Netscape Navigator|Netscape]] 1.0 in late 1994 introduced [[Secure_Sockets_Layer|SSL]] encryption that made transactions secure.
* 1995: Jeff Bezos launched [[Amazon.com]] and the first commercial 24 hr. internet only radio station "Radio HK" started broadcasting. [[Dell,_Inc.|Dell]] and [[Cisco_Systems|Cisco]] began to aggressively use Internet for commercial transactions.
* 1996: [[eBay]] was founded.
* 1998: Electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for printing from the Web.
* 1999: business.com was sold for US $7.5 million (purchased 1997 for US $150,000) The peer-to-peer filesharing software "[[Napster]]" was launched.
* 2000: The [[dot-com]] bust.
* 2001: Merger of [[AOL]] and [[Time Warner]].
* 2003: [[Amazon.com]]: first-ever full-year profit.
==See also==
*[[Bricks and clicks business model]]
*[[Business-to-business electronic commerce]]
*[[Business-to-consumer electronic commerce]]
*[[Electronic business]]
*[[Electronic commerce]]
*[[Enterprise resource planning]]
*[[Internet fraud]]
*[[Retailer]]
*[[Shopping cart]]
*[[Shopping mall]]
==External links==
* [http://www.nettfindsmgul.comac.ru/eng/ Shopping safelyMSFU onlinesite]
[[Category:Forestry]]
[[pl:Sklep internetowy]]
[[Category:Universities and colleges in Moscow]]
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