ICT

4.0 INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY

4.1. E- commerce

4.1.1. Understanding E -Commerce
a. History
E-Commerce or Electronic Commerce also known as e-Business, Is the buying and
selling of goods, products, or services over the internet using electronic means of
payment like credit cards. This commerce provides to buying parties physical goods
but also electronic materials (goods) where possible.
The history of ecommerce dates back to the invention of the very old notion of “sell
and buy”, electricity, cables, computers, modems, and the Internet. Ecommerce
became possible in 1991 when the Internet was opened for commercial use
At first, the term ecommerce meant the process of execution of commercial
transactions electronically with the help of the leading technologies such as
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) which gave an
opportunity for users to exchange business information and do electronic
transactions. The ability to use these technologies appeared in the late 1970s and
allowed business companies and organizations to send commercial documentation

electronically.

b. Some Ecommerce platforms
With ecommerce the buying and selling parties don’t need to meet at the same
location, the buyer does not go to the store but there is an electronic platform that is
used as a market where the buyer and the seller meet. An example of such a platform

is amazon.com.

Figure 4.1. Amazon.com one of the most known Online shopping platforms

To buy goods on amazon.com or any other online chopping platform (ecommerce
website), the buyer must have an Amazon account, must log in using that account,
choose among the list of provided goods, choose location where the goods are to be
delivered and pay using acceptable payment means like Credit cards.

As of September 2021, the online shopping platforms available in Rwanda are among
others vubavuba.rw and kikuu.com. Through this platforms one can buy food (Vuba

Vuba) or clothes (kikuu.com).

c. Buying on an e-commerce platform case of kikuu.com
As stated earlier kikuu.com is one of the platforms available in Rwanda with which one
can buy available goods and have themdelivered to his/her preferred location in Kigali.
To buy with Kikuu, as it is a principle for other e-commerce the buyer has to have an
account. To create that account, go through these steps:

1. Once the login is successful choose goods to buy.
For most platforms goods have pictures and accompanying image and for
selecting the goods just click on its image. Select the goods specifications
carefully so as to get what is wanted. In the case of the shoes chosen like in the image
below the customer has to choose the shoe’s color and the size.

2. Pay the amount due by using the preferred payment method

in the next two screens choose the payment method and click on PAY<Amount>. In
the other screen as MTN Money has been chosen as payment method fill the account

and click PAY <Amount>

d. Advantages and disadvantages of e commerce
There is no good thing without a bad side. Ecommerce presents to its users many

advantages but has also disadvantages.

a. Advantages of E-commerce
• Does not require physical displacement of the buyer hence saving money and
time
• Products and services are easy to find on the platform rather than moving in so
many stores, warehouses or supermarkets
• Transactions can be done all the time of the day and the week (24/7).
• No geographical limitations translate as a bigger customer reach.
• Higher quality of services and lower operational costs. 
b. Disadvantages of E-commerce
• No guarantee of product quality as the product is not physically viewed
• Customer loyalty becomes a bigger issue as there is a minimal direct
customer-seller interaction.
• Anyone can start an online business, which sometimes leads to scam and
phishing sites.
• Hackers target web shops which may lead to disruption of service.
4.1.2. E-commerce models
Electronic commerce can be classified into four main categories. The basis for this
simple classification is the parties that are involved in the transactions. The four basic

electronic commerce models are:

a. Business to Business
In a business to business model companies are doing business with each other. The
final consumer is not involved. So the Online transactions only involve the
manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, etc.
b. Business to Consumer
Here the company will sell their goods and/or services directly to the consumer. The
consumer can browse their websites and look at products, pictures, read reviews.
Then, they place their order and the company ships the goods directly to them.
c. Consumer to Consumer
Consumers are in direct contact with each other. No company is involved. It helps
people sell their personal goods and assets directly to an interested person.
d. Consumer to Business
The consumer provides goods or services to the company.
For example an IT freelancer who demos and sells his software to a company.


4.2. Online Payment Methods

Is the way that a buyer chooses to compensate the seller of a good or service that is also acceptable to the seller. Typical payment methods used in a modern business context include cash, checks, credit or debit cards, money orders, bank transfers and online payment services such as PayPal.

1. Cash Payment
Buying online requires using electronic means which are acceptable by the selling
companies for example as seen in previous sections buying with Kikuu requires using
MTN Money. Other online platforms may require special cards known as debit or

credit cards.

a. Debit & credit cards

A debit/credit card is a plastic card normally issued by a financial institution to allow
its user to pay at Points of Sale in order to complete a purchase. They also allow the

same purchase on online shopping platforms.

Debit and credit cards look alike and it is not easy to identify them simply by liking at
them except when it is written on them. The main difference is where money is got
from: for the debit cards money is immediately got from the owner bank account while

for the credit card money is charged to the customer’s credit line.

The image below shows the front and back side of a credit/debit card

The parts found on the front side of the credit card are:
Note: Keep the card number a secret as that number can be used by ill intentioned people
The parts found on the back side of the credit card are:
An example of a typical debit card is found below:

b. 1. Using a debit/credit card to purchase
The following are the steps of using a Debit/Credit card in online shopping:
upon completing the transaction, and keep it until the item arrives.

For using debit cards at POS or ATMs insert the card and follow the prompts

c. Mobile Phone based Money
Also called Mobile money is a technology that allows people to receive, keep and
spend money using a mobile phone. It’s sometimes referred to as a ‘Mobile Wallet’ or
by the name of a specific service

There are more different mobile money services around the world. Although they are
most popular in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Mobile money is a popular alternative
to both cash and banks because it’s easy to use, secure and can be used anywhere
there is a mobile phone signal.

Mobile money keeps funds in a secure electronic account linked to a mobile phone
number. In some cases, the mobile money number will be the same as the phone
number. Mobile money is often provided by the same companies that run the mobile
phone services and it is available to both pre-pay and contract customers.

4.3. Facebook
Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to
community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration which enable
users to create or share content or participate in social networking.

Examples of social media are: Facebook, twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp

Facebook is one of the most popular free social networking websites. It allows
registered users to create profiles, upload photos and videos, send messages and stay
in touch with friends, family and colleagues.
For most social media before using them an account must be created. An account
identifies the user as different from other users in the system.

The following steps are followed to create a Facebook account:

1. Open Facebook Home page by entering in the browser’s address bar the link
www.Facebook.com
2. The first page provides the option to login or sign up. Fill in the form the required
information and click on sign up
3. Enter personal information (First name, Last name, email or phone number,
Birthday and gender)

4. Enter the code provided through SMS or the provided email

Open the verification email that is sent to the email provided while creating
the account
2. Edit the profile information by logging into the new account and clicking on Edit

profile

The following table will be appeared.

Note: The account has been created you are able to login into your Facebook
account:
Go to Facebook.com and in the top right form fill in the email and the password

then click on:

• Connecting with friends

• Once the account is entered in the search box choose the correct Facebook
account among the many options and click Add Friend. In the image above
the account chosen is Shyaka Emmanuel

• Sharing pictures

A Facebook account holder can upload pictures on his/her Facebook account, share
them or share pictures uploaded by others.
Steps to upload a picture in your account are:

• In the menu click on Photo then on Add Photos/Video

In the new window that will appear browse for the picture to upload and open

it so that it gets uploaded.

• Comment the picture, set who has rights to view it and click on Post like
illustrated in the image above
The uploaded image can then be viewed by anyone (if right to view the image has

been set to Public) and they can like, share and comment this image.

d. Chatting
Facebook provides the option to converse with friends by using the chat option whose
window is available in the far down right zone of a Facebook page.

The content of the chat is text but can be also attachments in form of text files,

images, GIF files, videos or a laptop camera taken picture/video

Twitter is a free microblogging service that allows registered members to broadcast
short posts called tweets. Twitter members can broadcast tweets and follow other

users’ tweets by using multiple platforms and devices.

a. Creating an account

In the next screen that will appear also click on Next. Confirm the

telephone number so and use the sent code to continue to the next stage

• In the next screen enter the password for your twitter account and click on Next.
The screen that will thereafter appear will allow you to edit the twitter account profile
picture by clicking on the human head-and-body silhouette but this can be skipped to

be done later.

In the next screens that will appear follow the prompts. Those screens will allow
describing yourself, setting your interests, suggestions of accounts to follow, turning

on notifications

In the steps given above the account creator may decide to go into additional steps
depending on which features to activate. Here most of the options have been skipped
or the default provided option was chosen. After going through all the steps the
account is created and is ready to be used. However the steps are subject to change
and screens may not look like the ones provided here depending on changes brought

in by Twitter.

b. Following a twitter account
All social media provide better experience when one is acquainted with other
user in the same social media network. For a twitter user to have better experience

he/she has to follow other accounts.

Following an account permits one to receive immediately prompts when the followed
account posts a tweet in form of text, image or video; updates the profiles

immediately after they are posted.

Following a twitter account is done in these steps:

1. Search for the account to follow using the twitter search box
2. Next to the searched account click on Follow. The Follow

immediately change into Following

Figure 4. 21. Window to use to search for twitter accounts

c. Tweeting
Also known as tweeting is posting making a post on the social media Twitter. The
post can be just text, images and videos.

To post a tweet go through this process:

                                                   Figure 4. 22. Screen used to post a tweet

Note:

d. Twitter menu icons
In the previous sections some of the available twitter options have been elaborated.
Those options can however be easily accessed by using the icons located at the left
side of a twitter account page. The table below represents those icons and their roles

4.5 Instagram 

Instagram is a free social networking service built around sharing photos and
videos. It launched in October 2010 on iOS (iPhone Operating Systems) first, and
became available on Android in April 2012 and can be accessed via computer internet

browsers.

Instagram is a free social networking service built around sharing photos and
videos. It launched in October 2010 on iOS (iPhone Operating Systems) first, and
became available on Android in April 2012 and can be accessed via computer internet

browsers.

Just like other social networks, an account can interact with others on Instagram by

following them, being followed by them, commenting, liking, tagging.

a. Creating an Account on Instagram
Like other social media one cannot use Instagram without having an account created
and for that go through these steps:
1. Enter in the browser’s address bar the URL of the application (www.instagram.

com)

2. In the form that appear to the right of the new page fill in the required details

and click on Sign up

3. in the next screen click on Turn on (to turn on notification) or Not so as to be

directed to the Instagram first page

b. Instagram main icons
Instagram has got icons which help carry out the basic functions. Those icons are

shown in the image below:

                                Figure 4.25. Instagram page with its icons

4.6. WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a popular messaging app with end-to-end encrypted instant messaging that can
be used on various platforms, including Android, iPhone and Windows smartphones, and Mac

or Windows PCs.

For WhatsApp to be installed on PCs an auxiliary application is needed in order to create a
virtual environment resembling a Mobile Operating System in which WhatsApp will be

installed. Such auxiliary applications are NOx Player and Blue Stack.

A. Installing WhatsApp
Installing WhatsApp first requires downloading it through the phone application for
downloading applications. For android that application is Play Store. Download WhatsApp by

searching for it in Play Store and install it by going through the prompts

In the next screen that will appear touch on Accept and let the application download. When
there is not enough space for downloading the application, it will be necessary to delete some

files to liberate some space.

Downloading and installing WhatsApp will go through these steps shown in the screenshots

below

Interpretation of the screens:
B. Adding a Status in WhatsApp for Android
Similar to apps like Snapchat and Instagram, WhatsApp Status is a place for snapping pictures
of whatever you’re doing and then uploading them to your profile where they’re available for
your contacts to see for 24 hours. To get started with Status:

4.7. E-Banking and E-Payment 


Transfer of funds occur between financial institutions such as banks and credit unions.
They also occur between financial institutions and commercial institutions such as stores.
Whenever someone withdraws cash from an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) or pays

for services using a debit card, the funds are transferred via electronic banking.

E-banking is a safe, fast, easy and efficient electronic service that enables an access to a bank
account and to carry out online banking services, 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week.
With this service you save your time by carrying out banking transactions at
any place and at any time, from home or office provided there isinternet access.
E-banking enables the following:

Example
In Rwanda mobile money services are provided by TIGO Cash, MTN Mobile Money and Airtel
Money. They include money transfer and withdrawal from a mobile money account and from

even a bank account, payment of different bills like water and electricity

4.8. Irembo Local Online Services

Irembo is an initiative by the Government of Rwanda aiming at improving its service delivery
to the citizens and businesses. Irembo is the one-stop portal for e-Government services.
Irembo as a platform has the role of the provision of Government services online with ease,

efficiency and reliability.

How to create account from irembo

• Type www.irembo.gov.rw in the address bar of your browser

Fill in dialogue box black space

These services are subject to changes as some services can be added but the ultimate

goals is to have all services offered through this platform.

a. Requesting for Irembo service
Requesting for services on Irembo requires first to have a username which is

the identity card number without the last three digits and a password

             Figure 4. 31. Signing into an Irembo account

b. Current Irembo services